Metal Reviews

We all have at one point in our duration of listening to thos music, recall the rush of adrenaline through our bodies when listening to the music. The involuntary moments where the music took hold, and your headphones or stereo lit up with the vibrant and pulsating eminence of the riffs. In our reflections do you wish you could recall those pivotal musical moments, or have you since grown accustomed to playing the classics of your youth? Have you heard any new bands that recount the old school spirit, or are you content going through your vinyl/cd collection playing your favorites? Perhaps more importantly if you could relive the experience again, would you?

I'm always rediscovering metal. I was always kinda immersed in metal so I never had a radical epiphany but I have had experiences with new stuff like Dopethrone is my big example which has just rocked me to the core and yeah it's awesome. I just don't see that moment as in the past. I'm sure things in the future will bring that feeling again.

The last thing to make me feel giddily excited in a way that I haven't felt since first getting into metal was probably Neurosis.

I don't really miss it; more like I feel nostalgic about it. There's still new and amazing stuff to discover, and I always feel excited about that.

I'd love to discover a new metal band that makes me really excited since that hasn't happened for years and it makes me a little sad that it's been so long. But when I first discovered metal I spent tons of time listening to new albums and didn't become intimately familiar with very many of them, so I think I appreciate music more now, and I don't really miss that. Also there's lots of non-metal that gets me all hot and bothered so watevs.

Slough Feg was one of those bands that I think I learned from you and Adam getting hot and bothered about it which blew my mind entirely. Downloaded it all and listened to it for days on end. Just instantly loving everything and getting so into it.

Nothing will ever top discovering Emperor, My Dying Bride, Opeth, Nile, etc., back in 2001 just before Napster shut down. Man those days were awesome: I remember listening to the 30 second previews off of 'In the Nightside Eclipse' about 100 times from Amazon.com while I waited so impatiently for the disc to arrive in the mail.

In the Nightside Eclipse sounded so different, so evil, so complex to my untrained ears.

Yep. /\ . Impulse-brought Transilvanian Hunger without really knowing what to expect, and had my mind destroyed on the first listen. Moments like that, and my first taste of proper heavy Death Metal with a Blood Red Throne purchase, I doubt I'll ever get again.

Good questions.
To me you can do an analogy with what I imagine sex is for aging people : still good, but less intense, quicker, and less often. I feel the same regarding metal, and music in general (hell, even movies. Actually, pretty much everything now that I think about it). I sometimes get my kicks from new bands or new albums, but it's just not as often, long and intense as it used to be. I get fed up with very good albums within days, and have to wait weeks before I want to listen to them again.

But as I said, the same goes with pretty much everything.

There is something oddly romantic about the first time. Standing out in a cold parking lot listening to ITNE blaring from my friend's truck, I fucking loved it. Went home immediately and downloaded it. Oh, the days...

After my 3 years of listening to MP3, it really is like hearing everything for the first time again, so in a way, I'm experiencing this.

Songs that were a solid 8 out of 10 now sound like masterpieces.

There is a lot of stuff, but mostly pop singles, I have never heard in 44.1Khz, 1411Kbps output at 24-bits.

Before this 3 year stretch there was about a year I listened to CD on a cheap 50 dollar memorex system with my tower speakers replacing the little speakers that it came with. Before that, I was using a circa 2000 windows 98 computer using my own 320Kbps rips.

There's a certain energy and amount of musicality that comes from the the radio, analog TV, CD, tapes, ect. that you just do not get the second anything is compressed.

I really feel like this is the first time i'm hearing everything. I have perfect source files, a HD audio chipset, an all analog SS amplifier and my beloved tower speakers.

It feels great! after only listening to music "trying to find what I once loved" I have re-discovered what drew me to it.

I've spent about 8 hours a day either on the headphones or listening to the tower speakers.

I feel like a little kid again discovering the music again. Back then, I would listen to the Adult Contemporary station for about 4 hours a day. The radio has bad sound quality, but it is not psychologically grating like MP3.

Sorry to get off on this topic again, but yeah I don't think that sense of discovery will go away again. Everything just sounds so good and I can't wait to listen to some good music instead of hoarding albums like if I have enough it will excuse the inability to listen to any of it.

I take my sweet time when it comes to discovering new bands and music. For example I only recently started listening to Meshuggah and now I've seriously wondered what the hell I've been doing with my life. There's a crapload of bands that I still want to listen to and they'll probably produce the same reaction.

So in short I still get that thrill because I'm very slow when it comes to these things.

Re: Nostalgia

I thought that is why I like the music I grew up listening to now, but as a matter of fact, when I stumble upon a song I have never heard before that is in the same vein...it works. I have nothing to feel nostalgic about other than the way albums of that period were produced and put together.

I know it fits the classic cycle of Discovery, Retirement and then Nostalgia, but all the music I have ever liked I still do, much more so now that I am reclaiming what I once experienced. The quality was the reason I quit listening to stuff for years. On a psychological level you can't miss what you never experienced. I am NOT one of those guys who bitches and complains that a recording could have this or that...not anymore and never again, but if you've never heard the original, the inferior copy will skate by without bothering you.

I am starting to get that feeling back with some of the recent bands I have listened to (thanks Keldian), but ultimately nothing will ever top 2003 when I was introduced to a ton of bands by my friend. If I had to pin down the album that gave me the greatest sense of holy shit, it would be Symphony X's The Odyssey. After adolescence filled with Korn, Manson, System, etc....., good god was my mind blown. Then the flood gates opened, and 8 years later I have just flooded my ears with so much music that I have become more and more critical of what I am listening to. Perhaps the wonder is gone, but certainly not the appreciation and enjoyment.

And the title track off that album remains one of the most jaw droppingly inspring songs I have ever listened to.....

TRIUMPHANT, CHAMPION OF ITHICA!!!!

Yes and no. In a way I love how I kind of have refined my tastes and am not impressed by every single thing I hear and am not constantly wasting time searching for new bands/checking out new music. But obviously discovering metal was pretty fucking awesome as a teenager and I enjoyed when it was fresh to me. I'm only 21 and I'm sure there's plenty more great releases on the horizon.

When I was that age I was told that I would be listening to the same old shit in a few years. I thought that was obscene! Here it is a few years later and I'm listening to the same old shit.

I think this is something that I appreciate a lot with many of my favourite bands, actually. There are certain bands/albums that allow me to revisit that initial sense of discovery and adrenalin rush reaction. Maybe that's what kept me so enthusiastic about them is that they never fail to spike my adrenalin or heighten my spirits or generally just match my mood whatever it might be.

Burzum's first three albums (+ Aske EP)
Darkthrone ABITNS - Panzerfaust + demos
Setherial - ...Nord
Judas Iscariot - Heaven In Flames and Distant In Solitary Night Emperor up to Anthems
Mayhem - Deathcrush and DMDS
Nifelheim - Servants of Darkness

Are all albums that cause me to relive my discovery of black metal, and brings about a sense of nostalgia about my teen years. For some reason, listening to these albums in the spring time inhance the effect, lol. They do make me wish I could go back to that time though. While I do feel that sense of discovery often when I listen to those albums and even feel like I appreciate them more with each listen, of course I think there is always feeling of wanting to go back to the initial discovery when something was totally new and seemed so huge in comparison to anything you'd ever heard before.

I don't think I'd go as far as saying grown used to hearing your favourites, that to me seems like saying that they have lost their magic over time, and they certainly haven't.

There are a few old school Swedish and Dutch death metal bands that have that effect on me as well as some traditional heavy metal and speed metal bands like Running Wild, Dio, Accept etc.

And even some newer albums and bands do this for me. Sarke - Vorunah, last three Darkthrone albums, Hail of Bullets - Of Frost and War and On Divine Winds, Asphyx - Death the Brutal Way and newer black/thrash bands like Trench Hell are some examples.

I think for me it's all about bands that play unreserved, aggressive, energetic and "honest" metal that will always produce that same level of excitment.

Oh the days that I discovered Opeth, Emperor, Agalloch, Insomnium, Windir, Edge of Sanity (Crimson II) and just the feeling of being memorized by the utter brilliance of metal music or music in general has past or at least haven't had the feeling for a long period of time. I yearn for the days...

For the last couple of years it has been discovering more classical and ambient music which has been a moving and a captivating experience to say the least.

i always get that feeling when i find a new band that's heavy if it isnt i dont quite get it but still enjoy it allot ;p

Actually, not really. It was awesome when I first started listening to Dream Theater, since they were the first metal band I ever liked. Then I started posting here and I think the elitism aspect of it all is what appealed to me more than the music. I enjoyed hating on mainstream music and trashing the metal my friends listened to as "not real" metal. Of course, I discovered some great bands in the process, but I was definitely more interested in gaining metal cred and listening to all the classics/essentials than finding the stuff that I really liked.

Over the course of a few years, I came to my senses and now I listen to whatever the fuck I want. Haterz gon hate.

Figured you'd post some trash like that.