Metal Reviews

Noodles, it doesn't seem you have listened to a lot of Prog Rock music. Neither have I given Pop a real chance and I don't think I ever will. Bands like Yes, Egg, National Health, and even Opeth have written very hard to play and difficult music in any aspect you look at it. Now, it might not be as advanced as say Thel Monk's music but it definitely does get damn close to it. Ihsahn has mentioned the Baroque period being a huge influence on him (ideas of counterpoint). I believe it's the band Egg which have written their own symphony, and Yes has a song named after Brahms which I might add lives up to it. A lot of prominent musicians in Metal have mentioned a lot of influences from the 1970's Prog because it was truly a Renaissance of music in many, many, different aspects.

I've listened to and love a lot of prog rock. (The Mars Volta are my favourite band. Opeth, Jethro Tull, and King Crimson are up there, too.) They're great musicians, easily better than I'll ever be (that's not saying much lo), but it's vastly overrating their abilities to put them in the same league as this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hOKcdZJJFU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIkQNti8_EU

and there's a lot that needs to go right to make a great pop album. Like Lana Del Rey's new album perfectly straddles the line between elegance and trashyness in the lyrics, arrangements, production, her vocal style, etc and it'd be a lot worse if it fell short in one of those areas. (For example, on her debut.) To me, nailing the small stuff is just as impressive as doing complicated things.

The Who pop I don't think so.

90% of these threads end up here. Too bad.

Those links are definitely colourful, but it's not about going up and down the scales. I really won't bother to post links but I'm pretty sure a lot musicians in Prog Rock are able to play that sort of thing or in Metal. The issue lies in the style of writing music, a matter of emphasis on melody and emotion rather than say abstract melodious scales and harmonies. Musicians know their musical instruments in infinite ways and merely saying that because those two links are good in terms of speed and precision can't quite possibly mean that they are better in different aspects as well. The position of improvisation holds a huge value in Jazz and Prog that does not hold a place in Classical music. A Classically trained musician only knows the notes or memorizes the notes in front of him/her but does not know how to play outside those scales. The reason the Romantic period is my favourite era in Classical music is because the boundaries were broken with still keeping some fundamentals. People like Steve Reich and Philip Glass take huge influences from albums like Kind of Blue or In a Silent Way. I believe it's about the metamorphosis of ideas in music, not about a particular musicians not being able to play a particular scale and the speed of light!

Richter is acclaimed for far more than just his speed and precision :-\

Gonna talk about other stuff now...



Any era in classical music, from Bach to Berg, were breaking some boundaries while adhering to others. It's not really a trait unique to the Romantic period. For me (not an expert), what I hear in the Romantic period is that the boundaries that we're accustomed to are the ones being broken. Mozart was doing new things, but his new things sound predictable to me because I'm used to them. Messiaen was doing new things, but his new things hurt my ears because I'm not used to the tradition he was pushing forward.

I see your point. My point regarding the Romantic period was breaking say the counterpoint regulated by Bach which we can seen used in Brahm's music but with more expansion. The Romantic period was the peak of emotion and texture, now the Baroque can be somewhat known for that as well... but each era in Classical music in general took ideas and transformed it into another phase which is a part of your point. For example, Beethoven took simplicity and took it to a place of sheer emotion which Bach never did because the consciousnesses and mentality of the Baroque period did not actualize such sheer and euphoric emotion in more simple, yet, very effective terms. The definition of the Romantic period is a period of tone and colour, texture and extreme moods and emotions that cannot be very much seen in say the Baroque or Classical period as much as it can be seen in the Romantic period. This is because quite obviously each era of Classical music has a different "definition" and "categorization."

The Progressive Rock band Camel is most excellent up to and including Rains Dances. After that they transformed to a heavily-vibe Pop band.

Dubstep-ish remix of Meshuggah that isn't wholly awful: http://www.metalsucks.net/2012/04/27/re ... more-90868

I think the 10th Anniversary concert of Les Miserables is my favourite piece of recorded music. All the songs are great, all the singers are amazing and suit their characters so well. (Cosette and Eponine are a lil' annoying but it fits.) Valjean sounds powerful but showing the first signs of age and weakness in his voice. Javert sounds authoritative, aggressive and condescending. Fantine sounds haggard and heartbreaking. Marius sounds clear, strong and hopeful. Thenardier sounds more than a little bit goofy while being deranged and scary when he needs to be. The lyrics, the ending, the plot. It's all so well done. Listening to it gives me a torrent of different emotions and then leaves me drained and satisfied.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1s9ubYbFvc

New Kreator single available including an Iron Maiden cover.

The new Kreator simply Slays!

When will the world figure out that We only have one scale with 36 notes based on 12 pitches. Every note is a tri-tone if you know what you are doing. You can force a note to sound like another note if the timing and the succession is right. Go download some Guitar Pro tabs and you'll see certain metal bands use all 12 pitches in a part of a song and notice it retains it's tonality and mood regardless of the fact it is completely atonal. This also means there are multitudes of interpretations on what the percieved pitch actually is. Yes, I am saying a A# can sound EXACTLY like a B which is why we have things like Bb. the #'s and b's are the way the note sounds, not it's pitch. These guitar oriented rags are the worst. There is no such thing as F#/Gb. It's one or the other and yes, there are B#'s E#'s. There are specific mathematics that make this so. For example a diminished E sounds like an Eb, but is the same pitch as E. Stupid humans! Stop butchering another culture's beautiful natural language with your ham fistedness!

I hate you.

I feel like Adverser has become more self-aware lately and it's made him less fun :(

I like how Cryptopsy still acts like they're relevant as if I give a fuck.

Have just changed my phone ringtone to Voivod - Brain Scan. Hope I forget to put it on silent and it goes off at work!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlMTpZ_PyfY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KzP4bC1Ypg

The guy playing tambourine is just so happy.

Kind of disappointed/annoyed that of the 20 or so albums I've bought digital copies of, only 1-2 have come with the equivalent of a booklet.

And that's why buying digital copies sucks.