Metal Reviews

Oh, I see. Happy discovering .

Just listened to it! It reminds me of later Earth, "Ennio Morridrone" kinda stuff. Slow, spacey, repetitive. But a little more experimental and less staunchly bluesy than Earth. Electronic percussion, a lot of effects pedals. It's really cool.

Cool! I'll check it out some time tomorrow. Thanks for the heads up, buddy.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/lu ... for-music/

This is interesting, and a frequent topic in these parts with downloading debates etc.

I lost it for a while myself. When I was making my own MP3s from CD the quality control was superb but eventually I got broke and perpetually jobless and decided other people could figure it out. That was not to be. I am really starting to see the stupidity of my actions on that front. I really am sad that I lost years and spent thousands of hours singing along to something that if I had the tools and knew what to listen for, I would have been quite disgusted with. I am firmly in the camp that downloading and especially lossy compression have buried and incenerated the music business. Ten years ago just about anybody putting out good quality material could get a deal. Now I don't think anyone has a shot whatsoever unless they already have the albums sold before they are pressed. I don't want to add tenfold to that by mentioning how this affected the art itself. People made decisions obviously that made their work suffer because of it and the absence of the hundreds that could have been heard and what they would have added and affected is immeasurable.

Personally I think it'd be better to learn how to be patient rather than having patience forced on you by technological limitations or arbitrary "5 albums a month!" rules. sheesh. It's not exactly a feat of self-awareness or self-control to realize when you're judging something too quickly.



I'll take youtube videos over cassettes, TVs, or radios. Maybe not the 240 ones but yeah.

Also technology has made more time for listening. I think the majority of my listening time is walking the dogs or walking to school, which I couldn't have done 20 years ago. (And walking is the perfect level of distraction for me to really listen to the music. Sitting, I get fidgety.)

Something I've been wondering for the last 15 minutes: Has just sitting and listening to music ever been a normal practice? I feel like it hasn't, even if you narrowed your focus to music fans.

Are you saying that people who look back to tradition and how things used to be often invent that tradition disconnected from the reality that they claim to be referring to?

Agree with noodz. Music is as awesome as it ever was. Sucky listeners exist now just as much as they always did.

Definitely. A few years ago when I wasn't going to school or not working I use to sit in front of my speakers and do nothing but listen. Nowadays it's a bit difficult to do that just because I have things to do like write an essay or go to work. I also listen to music on the way to school or at home studying or even memorizing things. I find it relaxing and helpful for example to listen to Necros Christos while memorizing Psychology . With the right setting and atmosphere and depending on the mood of the person and the importance of music in a personal point of view, I think sitting back with a glass of wine or absinth (whatever floats your boat!) is essential to kick back and purely enjoy the music without the slightest of distractions.

I used to listen to music and did nothing else for up to 10 hours when I had something to help

I have been spoiled by singing along. I'll never enjoy just listening without being involved and in some way meshing with what I hear with my ears and the vibrations echoing in my body. I really think I didn't even understand how a song is supposed to make you feel until it was done this way. You react tenfold and really start feeling the emotions that are supposed to be evoked by the scales and modes when you are in turn creating it too. That's almost the meaning of life. There's all this going on that is so perfect, but you don't experience it fully until you become co-creator of the experience and coloring it your own way.

That's just crazy Noodz, with all due respect. I would take any analogue format (except broadcasts!) over a heavily lossy digital file. Tapes are WAY better than any MP3, as long as it isn't falling apart, hasn't been destroyed by magnets or something else. Even a tape that has sit in the hot sun in a car for ten years still sounds good enough not to suck. Those 20 year old Rush tapes never bothered me, but lossy compression just fucks with your mind. A hard dropoff anywhere in your hearing range is not going to make your mind happy about what's causing it. The telephone at least had nice analog high and lowpass rolloffs, this shit usually doesn't. I would love to do a study on stress levels of different lossy and lossless formats. You just don't know how much aggitation and surface tension builds up because deep down there is something wrong with the way it sounds until you are relieved of it.

I've spent a bunch of time just sitting and listening - being a music fan, I've always thought of it as a great way to absorb an album - but every time I've done it there's been a slight but constant struggle to stay attentive, to not start reading, sleeping, thinking, or fidgeting.

I'd consider singing along (or dancing, etc) to be a different type of activity, since those are pretty active. You're adding a lot to the experience.

I'm digging deeper into Zero Hour's discography and I am definitely loving what I hear. Sampling couple of tracks from each album to make purchasing decisions. Technicality, melody, structure, and dynamics, all ingredients of a great progressive band.

I hope you started at Towers of Avarice, because nothing they recorded after that has come close to being as epic.

I actually started working backwards but I have also purchased Tower of Avarice. So four albums altogether from and excluding "Dark Deceiver" which I already have.

I just discovered the Towers of Avarice line-up, but different drummer, did another album under a different name last year.

http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/cynthesis

this is relevant to my interests

Does anyone think the band name "Labyrinthine" is a totally retarded idea for a non-cover band?

I think it's a cool name.

Checking out the band Persefone from Andorra! Great Neo-classical/progressive Death Metal! Fantastic band! A buddy of mine showed them to me a few years back and I loved them but never really followed them ever since. Now that I'm looking to exapand my technical/progressive collection this is an excellent addition. The clean vocals remind me of Edge of Sanity's prominent Dan Swanö. This band is unique and original. Fuckin' A.

Checking out Rotten Sound - Exit

I must like some kind of grind if not the typical Napalm Death Grindcore. I just have no way with mindless screaming and the structure in the sound of many grind bands. I really don't mind Rotten Sound. In fact, I like them.

Eh, Rotten Sound isn't my thing. The riffs aren't as prominent as they could be. I feel like I've already suggested things so I won't again.

Yes you have. RS's sound is appealing to me and I've never liked Grindcore.