MUSIC REVIEWS/GENERAL NEW (OR OLD) MUSIC DISCUSSION

Joey · Post by **Joey** » Fri Oct 01, 2010 11:26 pm

I HAVE BUILT A WALL AND I AM TEARING IT DOWN

okay so lately rate the band has been falling down and that's due to my general lack of enthusiasm because i am a person who will start a project and never finish it

so right now i am starting this

in this topic, you will talk about new music releases with others

you will post music reviews of any album or song or whatever the hell you really want

this is that topic

i haven't been as enthused about writing lately so i'm getting pumped up again

expect this weekend to bring a best-of-2010-so-far list, a huge essay, a bunch of capsule reviews, maybe some essay reviews that i've refined from my past weeks at the newspaper (dissatisfied with so much of this crumpets)

oh, the huge essay?

well basically do you guys remember these

http://noisecritic.wordpress.com/2010/1 ... -old-post/

(i know you some of you guys thought that my reviews were good back in that old topic but jesus christ, no they were not good, i mean look at this, then again i can't look at my stuff from eight months ago either so maybe i'm just my own worst critic)

well right now i'm writing for a new series i'm doing on another website called "The Apologist" where i defend works that i think get unnecessary hate, and i'm fittingly writing about chinese democracy to start that off

right now i'm nine hundred words in and i haven't even begun talking about the actual quality of the album and so far it's one of my most interesting articles yet mainly because self-reflection is easy to write and read and that's most of what i've been doing so far

so guys talk about new music, review new and old music, get pumped, get psyched, LOCALIZE

rate the band may resume but that will be on an entirely spontaneous basis on my part

i might write capsule reviews for every album that i listen to so uh watch out for that

also bg convinced me that i should probably start doing a podcast or something last night so i might post those here too

Atticus · Post by **Atticus** » Sat Oct 02, 2010 4:04 am

Your series of GNR stuff is missing Live Era, which is a pretty kickass double album. It also has my favorite version of You're Crazy: Electric, but at the tempo of the acoustic version.

Obligatory link to last album review topic
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=11762

Pkdragon · Post by **Pkdragon** » Sat Oct 02, 2010 5:38 am

i don't think you need to repost those reviews in all their glory

at first glance i was like woah wall of quotes not reading that crumpets

and then realized it was just old stuff you were reposting

so yeah, music

Post by **HPD** » Sat Oct 02, 2010 5:45 am

this topic was an immediate tl;dr

Sniffit II · Post by **Sniffit II** » Sat Oct 02, 2010 5:48 am

Sure they will.

Pkdragon · Post by **Pkdragon** » Sat Oct 02, 2010 5:59 am

allright for something on topic, today's a new selection of albums for 5 bucks on Amazon.com, in mp3 form of course. not sure if people outside the US can use their MP3 store, but I've found that section has some amazing deals at times, and is worth keeping an eye on.

They offer a wide variety of albums, and a lot of it is crap, but there's a lot of decent stuff there. Like this month, The Suburbs by Arcade Fire is 5 bucks. I'll probably pick that one up, still haven't listened to it.

Narts · Post by **Narts** » Sat Oct 02, 2010 6:03 am

Hey guys let's intently focus on ignoring each other dropping names and make another thread about it.

McTool · Post by **McTool** » Sat Oct 02, 2010 6:06 am

Speaking of Amazon, Funeral is the deal of the day at 3.99. Anyone who doesn't have it should rectify that immediately (the rip I had was 192kbps, so I upgraded).

Joey · Post by **Joey** » Sat Oct 02, 2010 7:43 am

i didn't really expect people to read that one but yeah i AM FOLLOWING IT UP

other stuff'll be up first though

uh yeah, everyone should get funeral, seriously

Pkdragon · Post by **Pkdragon** » Sat Oct 02, 2010 8:14 am

the point is that it's big, intimidating, and doesn't give much incentive for people to actually read your post

not to mention there is absolutely no reason to actually post the reviews

Gentleman of Dread · Post by **Gentleman of Dread** » Sat Oct 02, 2010 8:17 am

Hey metalheads give me good bands to get into.

Joey · Post by **Joey** » Sat Oct 02, 2010 8:20 am

Pkdragon wrote:the point is that it's big, intimidating, and doesn't give much incentive for people to actually read your post

not to mention there is absolutely no reason to actually post the reviews

lol i suppose!

one second

Joey · Post by **Joey** » Sat Oct 02, 2010 8:20 am

god if you're not into mastodon you should get crackin'

not a metalhead at all but they'll agree with me here

Frankdeslimste · Post by **Frankdeslimste** » Sat Oct 02, 2010 8:22 am

Gentleman of Dread wrote:Hey metalheads give me good bands to get into.

Blind Guardian!

Quercus Alba · Post by **Quercus Alba** » Sat Oct 02, 2010 8:48 am

Joey wrote:i didn't really expect people to read that one but yeah i AM FOLLOWING IT UP

other stuff'll be up first though

uh yeah, everyone should get funeral, seriously

Gotta be more convincing than that, man.

Quercus Alba · Post by **Quercus Alba** » Sat Oct 02, 2010 8:56 am

Gentleman of Dread wrote:Hey metalheads give me good bands to get into.

Judas Priest is mandatory listening. They established a lot of musical trends that many heavy metal artists follow to this day (harmonized dual guitars, extremely high vocal pitches and screaming, fantasy and sci-fi lyrics, spiked-leather outfits) so becoming acquainted with their work is pretty much a requisite. There are even some sources that claim Judas Priest perfected the genre and created the standard for all subsequent artists to follow.

Albums for starters to consider:

Stained Class
British Steel
Screaming For Vengeance
Defenders Of The Faith
Painkiller

Pkdragon · Post by **Pkdragon** » Sat Oct 02, 2010 8:58 am

dragonforce

Joey · Post by **Joey** » Sat Oct 02, 2010 9:05 am

okay how about this

funeral is, personally, my favorite album of the aughts, and while i haven't made that list yet (coming in a few weeks), it might be my favorite album of all time, and it's certainly the top three or so

i could review it right now but i don't want to

just know that as you keep listening to it, it gets more and more affecting and wonderful

some tastes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zdNdjF-htY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0DpBOYzXcQ

McTool · Post by **McTool** » Sat Oct 02, 2010 2:30 pm

Gentleman of Dread wrote:Hey metalheads give me good bands to get into.

YOU ARE GETTING YOURSELF INTO SOMETHING BIGGER THAN YOU KNOW

In alphabetical order, with genre next to it. Required listening is starred.

Amon Amarth - Viking Metal
Arsis - Death Metal
At The Gates - Melodic Death Metal* - These guys are the pioneers of the genre, Slaughter Of The Soul is universally considered one of the best metal albums ever
Between the Buried And Me - Prog Metal*
Bumblefoot - Shred Metal* - Probably one of my favorite guitarists, he doesn't just shred for the sake of shredding, and takes it slow when necessary
Children of Bodom - Melodic Death Metal
Dark Tranquillity - Melodic Death Metal
The Devin Townsend Project/Devin Townsend/Strapping Young Lad* - SYL is Extreme Metal, Devin himself does EVERYTHING and he is a GENIUS
Dio - Heavy Metal* - THE GOD HIMSELF
Firewind - Power Metal
In Flames - Melodeath
Joe Stump - Shred/Neoclassical Metal
Lamb of God - Metalcore/Straight Up American METAL - Lamb of God isn't really required listening, but they're one of the biggest bands right now, so it's good to be familiar with some of their stuff
Living Colour - Funk Metal
Machine Head - Groove Metal*
Mastodon - Groove/Prog/Sludge Metal* - Definitely more proggy now, probably one of the best metal bands of the 00s, Crack the Skye was my metal album of the year last year
Meshuggah - Experimental Metal* - Legendary, their drummer is a beast
Nightwish - Power/Epic Metal
Opeth - Progressive Death Metal*
Pantera - Groove Metal* - These guys basically single-handedly kept metal alive in the 90s
Powerglove - Videogame Metal - Not required by any means, but fun as hell (and local to my area, though they tour nationally now, *sniff* they've come so far)
Queensrÿche - Prog Metal
Rage Against the Machine - Funk/Rap Metal - POLITICS
Rhapsody/Rhapsody of Fire - Power Metal
Rusty Cooley - Shred/Neoclassical Metal
SLLLLLLLAAAAAYYYYYYEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR - Thrash Metal* - Start with Seasons in the Abyss and Reign in Blood and move from there.
Sonata Arctica - Power Metal
Steve Vai - Shred/Neoclassical Metal
Symphony X - Prog Metal
Testament - Thrash Metal
Yngwie Malmsteen - Shred/Neoclassical Metal* - Pretty much the "original" speed freak

Post by **HPD** » Sun Oct 03, 2010 3:21 am

fudge yeah new Demians album (Mute) arrived today!

It sounds great, really.

Atticus · Post by **Atticus** » Tue Oct 05, 2010 1:38 pm

McTool wrote:BIG OL' LIST

I think South of Heaven is arguably a better Slayer album, although Reign in Blood is their biggest hit. Also, if we're gonna talk thrash, then Megadeth (Peace Sells or Rust in Peace) and Anthrax (Among the Living) must be mentioned, to say nothing of Metallica.

Also you've skipped over most of the classics. Shame on you. The pioneers are far more essential listening than anything that came later.

Black Sabbath- proto-metal
Deep Purple- proto-metal
Led Zeppelin- proto-metal
Blue Oyster Cult- proto-metal
Motorhead- speed metal
Iron Maiden- heavy metal
Judas Priest (as previously mentioned)- heavy metal
Ozzy Osbourne- heavy metal

Also, some other ones I like. Props to McTool for mentioning Living Colour since they're awesome and Vernon Reid is a seriously underrated guitar player.

Mercyful Fate- early black metal
Diamond Head- proto-thrash metal
Alice in Chains- alternative metal
Kyuss- stoner metal (the most pretentious metal subgenre, since only a tiny handful of other bands use it)
Primus- they are their own genre, sometimes called "alternative funk metal"
Ministry- industrial metal
Marilyn Manson- industrial metal
Rob Zombie- industrial metal

McTool · Post by **McTool** » Tue Oct 05, 2010 2:18 pm

I assumed he was already familiar with the very basics, but that list is pretty solid if he isn't. Alice in Chains are uh... grunge, though, not alt-metal. And if we're talking grunge, then Soundgarden also has to be tossed out there, as well as Mudhoney (and Nirvana, cue forum rage).

Also a lot of bands are stoner metal, just most of them use doom metal now, though it's basically the same thing.

I like to pretend 'Tallica doesn't exist any more. I honestly haven't listened to a Metallica album straight through in over a year (I'm guessing, I can't even remember the last time I was like "Man I want to listen to Metallica"). If you want better heavy thrash, Slayer is a better option, and if you want better "pop"-thrash with millions of guitar solos, Megadeth is a better option (which I left out, yes). Anthrax is the worst of the big four, in my opinion, but they also seem to be having the most fun nowadays, so props to them for that, I guess.

Quercus Alba · Post by **Quercus Alba** » Tue Oct 05, 2010 5:40 pm

As the self-designated representative of the often maligned "metalcore" genre, I'll drop a few band recommendations along with an album for your consideration:

All That Remains (The Fall Of Ideals)
As I Lay Dying (An Ocean Between Us)
Bullet For My Valentine (Scream Aim Fire)
God Forbid (Earthsblood)
Hatebreed (Hatebreed)
Killswitch Engage (As Daylight Dies)
Shadows Fall (Retribution)
Trivium (Shogun)
Unearth (The March)

Atticus · Post by **Atticus** » Wed Oct 06, 2010 8:03 am

McTool wrote:I assumed he was already familiar with the very basics, but that list is pretty solid if he isn't. Alice in Chains are uh... grunge, though, not alt-metal. And if we're talking grunge, then Soundgarden also has to be tossed out there, as well as Mudhoney (and Nirvana, cue forum rage).

Also a lot of bands are stoner metal, just most of them use doom metal now, though it's basically the same thing.

I like to pretend 'Tallica doesn't exist any more. I honestly haven't listened to a Metallica album straight through in over a year (I'm guessing, I can't even remember the last time I was like "Man I want to listen to Metallica"). If you want better heavy thrash, Slayer is a better option, and if you want better "pop"-thrash with millions of guitar solos, Megadeth is a better option (which I left out, yes). Anthrax is the worst of the big four, in my opinion, but they also seem to be having the most fun nowadays, so props to them for that, I guess.

Alice in Chains toes the line between grunge and metal, and Cantrell often mentions heavy metal influence on the band. They slid into my list the same way that Primus did. Soundgarden, etc. are pure grunge.

I think of doom metal as slightly different from stoner metal, in that stoner metal is actually less metal and more of a rock sound. Stoner metal evolved into desert rock a la Queens of the Stone Age and Mondo Generator.

Anthrax is indeed the worst of the big four, but they're still pretty good. Metallica is much maligned but if we're just vomiting up band names they need to be mentioned. I generally don't listen to Metallica albums straight through because too many of them are full of filler but their live stuff is good since it's the closest you'll come to greatest hits.

Joey · Post by **Joey** » Wed Oct 06, 2010 8:06 am

Starting right now I'm reviewing every album I listen to here. Right now I'm listening to Daft Punk's Discovery.

Bonesy · Post by **Bonesy** » Thu Oct 07, 2010 9:22 pm

http://www.mediafire.com/?plto4ycj4p3cj0m

so HPD will quit bitching about my IRC script that tells you what I play

Frankdeslimste · Post by **Frankdeslimste** » Thu Oct 07, 2010 10:40 pm

HPD just loves to bitch.

Yeah, I went there!

Joey · Post by **Joey** » Fri Oct 08, 2010 5:58 am

Discovery - Daft Punk

When Pitchfork named this album the third best of the past decade, I was a little peeved. In terms of influence, Disocvery is obviously worthy of that kind of recognition. Let's be serious here. Those first four songs are all transcendentally fantastic. It seems like it gradually gets less and less dazzling. "One More Time" single-handedly proves that auto-tune can be utilized for good, and "Aerodynamic" is an instrumental stuffed with ideas, but then after that it's the same, only less. It's always good dance music, and there isn't a bad song, but I just end up wishing to listen to the album's first four songs again and again. Ultimately I don't have a lot to say about this one beyond those.

B-

"One More Time"
"Digital Love"
"Aerodynamic"

Nevermind - Nirvana

Walk with me, Terragent. I don't understand why you're asserting that James Hetfield (not that I care that much about Metallica) and Kurt Cobain "don't sing," but that's both wrong and entirely irrelevant. Sure, they both use their throats to heavily distort their voice, but, and let's get to talking about Nirvana here, Kurt Cobain hits the notes, and his pissed off alienation is best expressed through what he does. I can understand disliking the style, sure, but it seems to have turned into condescension, and god that's just plain wrong.

I definitely used to be in the boat that thought Cobain was some average schlub with dumbass lyrics and an ill-gotten messianic legacy, but once you start looking around Nevermind, there's so much here. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" captures the feeling of teenage revolutionary ideas that will never come to fruition, "In Bloom" openly makes fun of the listener, and so on until the grunge revolution was properly expressed. This is, of course, hilarious. Nirvana was always just a punk band, and grunge never mattered for crumpets (and we all know it). The Replacements were the sound of a band working against The Man and losing. Nirvana was the sound of a band losing to The Man and knowing it.

A

"In Bloom"
"Smells Like Teen Spirit"

Combat Rock

Not a lot to say. It's Sleater-Kinney, one of my favorite bands, reacting to the events of 9/11. It's one of my favorite albums of theirs. Corin's howl is a lot more tuneful, but the band still feels unrestrained.

A-

"Combat Rock"

more later, next up Howling Bells, The Clash, The Chemistry Of Common Life, Funeral, Halcyon Digest, In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, Tim

length depends entirely on how much i have to say and they'll be better than the one's above

Quercus Alba · Post by **Quercus Alba** » Fri Oct 08, 2010 9:08 am

The Fame Monster - Lady Gaga

God-tier album

[Alba Approved]

inb4unabitchesaboutmimickingrobertchristgauandbeingdeadwrongaboutit

Joey · Post by **Joey** » Fri Oct 08, 2010 9:13 am

lady gaga isn't really that bad or bad at all really

as far as pop artists taking the world by storm, lady gaga is a pretty good deal

christgau gave that album an a-

if you knew better, you would do better

Quercus Alba · Post by **Quercus Alba** » Fri Oct 08, 2010 10:23 am

EDIT: hurr durr faux criticism

McTool · Post by **McTool** » Fri Oct 08, 2010 10:26 am

Master of Puppets is a concept album?

Quercus Alba · Post by **Quercus Alba** » Fri Oct 08, 2010 10:30 am

I suppose it isn't then!

Post by **thefalman** » Fri Oct 08, 2010 11:33 am

I dunno, I subjected myself to the entirety of Gaga's debut album and it's basically 3 or 4 killer pop tunes and a load of dross. Admittedly I haven't listened to all of The Fame Monster but I imagine it probably fares better, if only because it has fewer tracks and therefore a better ratio of good/bad tunes.

Anyway stuff I wrote for a website what I write for YEAH

Dinosaur Pile-Up - Growing Pains
Archive - Controlling Crowds
Sky Larkin - Kaleide
HEALTH - Disco 2
Pulled Apart By Horses - Pulled Apart By Horses

And a couple of things from my blog:

A post about Grammatics' final EP, KRUPT.
Lots of stuff that happened at this year's Green Man Festival.

Atticus · Post by **Atticus** » Fri Oct 08, 2010 2:08 pm

McTool wrote:Master of Puppets is a concept album?

Depends on how you define concept album. According to Wikipedia, Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets, and ...And Justice for All are all concept albums in that every song deals with death, loss of control, and miscarriages of justice, respectively. Whether or not you agree is up to personal music pretentiousness.

We play Poker Face for pep band and it's actually a lot more fun than I thought. I still dislike most of her stuff, but I give her credit for being good at writing catchy stuff.

Joey · Post by **Joey** » Fri Oct 08, 2010 2:18 pm

Death and miscarriages of justice, maybe.

"Loss of control" is so damn broad that calling anything a concept album based on that recurring theme is just reaching.

Atticus · Post by **Atticus** » Fri Oct 08, 2010 2:28 pm

Let me take a look-see.

Battery: Loss of control due to anger.
Master of Puppets: Loss of control due to drug abuse.
The Thing That Should Not Be: Loss of control due to a Lovecraftian horror?
Welcome Home (Sanitarium): Loss of control due to loss of mind and being put in a Cuckoo's Nest style asylum?
Disposable Heroes: Loss of control due to being drafted, I think?
Leper Messiah: Loss of control due to religion?
Orion: hahahaha
Damage, Inc.: Loss of control because somebody just killed you?

Yeah, that's a huge stretch.

Also, Metallica likes death.

Joey · Post by **Joey** » Fri Oct 08, 2010 2:44 pm

Metal likes death.

I fixed that for you.

Also, yeah. Sometimes calling something a concept album makes sense (love song collection, story, et cetera), but very often it's a bit of a stretch.

For instance!

I liked Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, but I'd argue that it isn't really a concept album. In fact, so would they. The idea was that they could effectively tour behind an entire album, but while the remnants of that mission are clear, they effectively abandoned it.

Pkdragon · Post by **Pkdragon** » Fri Oct 08, 2010 2:48 pm

metallica likes death

so does every metal band under the sun (EDIT: joey beat me to it)

and the problem with those examples of loss of control is that several of those are indeed stretching, in particular thing that should not be, disposable heroes, leper messiah, and damage inc. and it seems more to me is that the theme tying together the lyrical content is "anything that makes for angsty music. drugs, military, religion, insanity, death, fudge yeah!"

but personally my opinion is that if you're going to try and make a concept album based on a abstract theme, the structure of the album has to reflect that the album is attempting to mediate on this theme, either through reoccuring musical passages, references to earlier sections of the album, having each song have some kind of specific purpose, i dunno there's many ways to accomplish this. but something must be done, otherwise the word concept album can literally apply to any album that has any sort of reoccuring pattern in the lyrics

oh look linkin park's lyrics are all about angst let's call their albums concept albums

in any case, i see nothing in metallica's musical structure attempting to make their albums more than a collection of songs, maybe with some similar lyrical content.

if this doesn't make sense it's late and honestly i don't really think much of the label "concept album" i just don't think it applies to metallica

Joey · Post by **Joey** » Fri Oct 08, 2010 3:09 pm

oh look linkin park's lyrics are all about angst let's call their albums concept albums

hahahahaha

concept albums need to pretty much be made with a certain idea or even gimmick in mind, even a recurring theme won't make something a concept album

here are some basic examples

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/69_Love_Songs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hospice_(album)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Aer ... er_the_Sea
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_Machine_Music (though if it was released today, it wouldn't be)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Who_Sell_Out
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kinks_ ... on_Society

these are all sort of what i imagine a concept album to be

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