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Metantoine
Slave to Santa

Joined: Sat Jun 21, 2008 5:00 pm
Posts: 12030
Location: Montréal
PostPosted: Thu Aug 15, 2013 4:55 pm 
 

http://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/P ... slayrrr666

One of the greatest review I approved recently, my first 8 pointer since a while (well, the fact there's metal scribes removed most of the good reviews from the queue!). Good job, slayrrr777, excellent musical description.
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droneriot
cisgender

Joined: Sat Aug 28, 2004 1:17 pm
Posts: 10812
Location: Spahn Ranch
PostPosted: Thu Aug 15, 2013 6:46 pm 
 

http://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/G ... /Orbitball

Don't have the slightest clue what the album sounds like based on that review.
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MutantClannfear
Blank Czech

Joined: Thu May 27, 2010 12:12 am
Posts: 3624
Location: United States
PostPosted: Thu Aug 15, 2013 7:11 pm 
 

Oh, man, drone, you just reminded me... a friend of mine found this clown's reviews last night: http://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/S ... SadistAria

The guy sounds like he has no idea to write about music, so he compensates by writing a bunch of vague meaningless phrases that you're supposed to interpret as "smart guy talks about stuff in terms that are too intelligent for me to understand, so I'll take his word for it". Check out the following gems:

SadistAria wrote:
Where there have been countless European eminences who have a different advent of how things should be, Sapthuran, as a whole, has by far been the imperceptible paradigm of how black metal should come across.

SadistAria wrote:
a crumbling mountain in the distance or the enticing silent anger of an unenlightening quality.

SadistAria wrote:
As the first track continues from beginning to end, the leads pop in and out giving off the feeling of casual misadventure, considering how inalterable the vibratos are. Not to spoil the song, but for the most part it is a basic opener with much consideration.


Then there's this line, which is unintentionally really funny:
SadistAria wrote:
It starts off with a semi-melodic accent, and the adaptation doesn't pick up until it's under two shy minutes, giving time to display pestilent severity for about twenty two seconds.

I'm imagining the band being some sort of worker who has to do this semi-melodic accent as part of his job, and then after he's done it enough his boss yells "Alright, Sapthuran, I'll give you about 22 seconds exactly to display pestilent severity!" :lol: What an awkward way to word things.
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Necroticism174
Kite String Popper

Joined: Mon Mar 30, 2009 6:46 pm
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Location: Canada
PostPosted: Fri Aug 16, 2013 2:03 am 
 

I'm laughing so hard that I can't breathe.
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lord_ghengis
Still Standing After 38 Beers... hic

Joined: Mon Dec 04, 2006 8:31 pm
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 16, 2013 5:47 am 
 

It's like a babelfish translation that's been fed through thesaurus.com.
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MutantClannfear
Blank Czech

Joined: Thu May 27, 2010 12:12 am
Posts: 3624
Location: United States
PostPosted: Fri Aug 16, 2013 5:50 am 
 

lord_ghengis wrote:
It's like a babelfish translation that's been fed through thesaurus.com.

That's almost the exact wording said friend used to describe it. :lol:

Image
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lord_ghengis
Still Standing After 38 Beers... hic

Joined: Mon Dec 04, 2006 8:31 pm
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Location: Australia
PostPosted: Fri Aug 16, 2013 7:23 am 
 

Great minds think alike.

Also good call Tony on that Paradox review, certainly sold it to me.
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Sick6Six
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2012 12:01 pm
Posts: 1987
Location: Woodstock, IL
PostPosted: Fri Aug 16, 2013 10:59 am 
 

The Sapthuran review may be pretty ridiculous, not going to read it all, but either way he's a good band.
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Empyreal
The Final Frontier

Joined: Thu Nov 30, 2006 6:58 pm
Posts: 35140
Location: Where the dead rule the night
PostPosted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 5:47 pm 
 

http://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/G ... arpshooter

One of my new favorite reviews on the site, this is very well done and encapsulates what's so great about this album, in a way that I'm not sure I ever could. The line about "Clouded" especially speaks to me - "On the near-ten minute dirge-to-end-all-dirges Clouded, you feel like you're trudging slowly through a steel foundry while God yells at you." Really great description and analysis of the album in general.
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BastardHead
Worse than Stalin

Joined: Thu Aug 18, 2005 7:53 pm
Posts: 10857
Location: Oswego, Illinois
PostPosted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 7:50 pm 
 

OSS is one of the best reviewers the site ever had.
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Gutterscream
The Last Old Schooler in Town

Joined: Fri Feb 18, 2005 3:59 pm
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Location: United States
PostPosted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 8:10 pm 
 

BastardHead wrote:
OSS is one of the best reviewers the site ever had.


Yup.
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OzzyApu
Metal freak

Joined: Fri Oct 13, 2006 12:11 am
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Location: Seattle
PostPosted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 8:33 pm 
 

Oooh, a "taste swap". Pretty neat "in" thing thus far.
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BastardHead
Worse than Stalin

Joined: Thu Aug 18, 2005 7:53 pm
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 18, 2013 8:46 pm 
 

I've had fun with all three of the ones I've done so far. I have my fourth candidate in mind but haven't contacted him yet. Don't wanna burn myself out.
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~Guest 82538
Metal freak

Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 10:34 am
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 19, 2013 10:47 am 
 

Forgot to mention Gunther's The Aura review (yes the buttfucked album). That Doomsday comparison is beyond amusing! It also brought me back twenty years into the past, just like that. Tissues were used! :D

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BastardHead
Worse than Stalin

Joined: Thu Aug 18, 2005 7:53 pm
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Location: Oswego, Illinois
PostPosted: Mon Aug 19, 2013 10:50 am 
 

I liked how a guy like me who knows so little about comics was able to understand all the metaphors. Well done, even if his opinion is totally wrong :p
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Thumbman
Big Cube

Joined: Mon Nov 16, 2009 6:47 pm
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Location: Canada
PostPosted: Mon Aug 19, 2013 3:11 pm 
 

OzzyApu wrote:
Oooh, a "taste swap". Pretty neat "in" thing thus far.

Yeah, I think the whole taste swap thing is awesome. I have three tentatively lined up for the next few months, one of them for which music has already been swapped and should be out in the near future. Can't wait to see more in the future, it's a really interesting concept.
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~Guest 82538
Metal freak

Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 10:34 am
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 19, 2013 3:35 pm 
 

OzzyApu wrote:
Oooh, a "taste swap". Pretty neat "in" thing thus far.

What the hell is a "taste swap"? For those of us less informed. :p

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BastardHead
Worse than Stalin

Joined: Thu Aug 18, 2005 7:53 pm
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 19, 2013 4:02 pm 
 

Basically well established reviewers have been talking to other well established reviewers and they've been giving each other albums outside of each others' normal comfort zone to review. I've done one where Metantoine and I swapped tech death and doom, MutantClannfear and I swapped flower metal and uber raw black metal, and now RapeTheDead and I just swapped Japanese thrash and mid 90s black metal. I think it's more fun for the writers than the readers unless the reader is a fan of one or the other, but I've had a blast doing them and I'm glad to see them catching on.
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iamntbatman
Chaos Breed

Joined: Sat Feb 21, 2009 5:55 am
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Location: Tyrn Gorthad
PostPosted: Mon Aug 19, 2013 6:16 pm 
 

Taste-swaps sound like a good way to get diseases.
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~Guest 82538
Metal freak

Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 10:34 am
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 19, 2013 6:42 pm 
 

Sounds fun. Just use some protection! :lol:

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GuntherTheUndying
Crimson King, Eater of Worlds

Joined: Mon Apr 24, 2006 4:36 pm
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Location: United States
PostPosted: Mon Aug 19, 2013 7:22 pm 
 

androdion wrote:
Forgot to mention Gunther's The Aura review (yes the buttfucked album). That Doomsday comparison is beyond amusing! It also brought me back twenty years into the past, just like that. Tissues were used! :D

BastardHead wrote:
I liked how a guy like me who knows so little about comics was able to understand all the metaphors. Well done, even if his opinion is totally wrong :p

Thanks guys, I appreciate it. I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I did get a chuckle out of myself comparing Brain Drill to Crazy Quilt. :lol:
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Under_Starmere
Abhorrent Fish-Man

Joined: Tue Apr 24, 2007 5:00 pm
Posts: 5568
PostPosted: Tue Aug 20, 2013 12:55 am 
 

xexyzl wrote:
RapeTheDead, I know you don't post in here too often, but if you check this thread anytime soon I just wanna say how stoked I am by your Summoning reviews. Much like Summoning themselves, they seem to be getting better and better...
But regardless, I've really enjoyed reading them, getting new perspectives and context on the band's evolution, and can't wait to read more.


Been enjoying them myself! Thanks, RtD. Just today I was reminded to give Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame a fresh listen due to your praise of that disc, and as a result moved closer to confirming my opinion that it is easily one of their weakest albums :). But never fear, you are a catalyst for learning!

Also, you skipped Nightshade Forests! Whaaaaaat :grr: That was one of the reviews I was hoping most to read. Definitely one of the best Summoning releases, perhaps THE strongest for me, and I'm always curious to see how others perceive it.
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Oberst_Orlok_SS
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Nov 29, 2008 11:09 am
Posts: 416
Location: Germany
PostPosted: Wed Aug 21, 2013 8:42 am 
 

Hmm, maybe I am misremembering but as I read the beginning droneriot's review of 13 he says something to the effect of how demotivating it is to be so let down by Black Sabbath but I could have sworn in more than one thread in the past he stated he never saw what was so great about the band in the first place.

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slayrrr666
Metal newbie

Joined: Fri Dec 02, 2011 4:47 pm
Posts: 194
Location: United States
PostPosted: Wed Aug 21, 2013 2:24 pm 
 

Metantoine wrote:
http://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/Paradox/Electrify/181706/slayrrr666

One of the greatest review I approved recently, my first 8 pointer since a while (well, the fact there's metal scribes removed most of the good reviews from the queue!). Good job, slayrrr777, excellent musical description.


Been a while since I've checked in here, but thanks for that feedback there. It means a lot that my writing style is appreciated, moreso by a mod of all people (so much so I'm overlooking that it's slayrrr666).

But enough the wankery, the real purpose of the post was this enticing read regarding one of my favorite bands' most underrated efforts:

http://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/O ... ls_unicorn

Perfectly in accordance to how I feel about the album as a whole in a concise, easily readable style. Kudos.
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hells_unicorn
Veteran

Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 8:32 pm
Posts: 3053
Location: United States
PostPosted: Wed Aug 21, 2013 3:02 pm 
 

slayrrr666 wrote:
http://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/Overkill/Horrorscope/1401/hells_unicorn

Perfectly in accordance to how I feel about the album as a whole in a concise, easily readable style. Kudos.


Thanks for the kudos, I was actually a bit proud of that review because it was the album that I was going to hit immediately after I reviewed "The Years Of Decay" and it took me about 4 years to finally get around to doing it. All I need to do now is hit "Under The Influence", "W.F.O." and "Coverkill" and I'll have polished off all of Overkill's discography, something I've also been meaning to do for several years but have always been side-tracked on once I get one or two finished. Any other Overkill fans can feel free to send me feedback on my current and upcoming reviews. :headbang:
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YADF
Metal newbie

Joined: Tue May 08, 2012 11:52 am
Posts: 79
Location: United States
PostPosted: Wed Aug 21, 2013 4:41 pm 
 

hells_unicorn wrote:
slayrrr666 wrote:
http://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/Overkill/Horrorscope/1401/hells_unicorn

Perfectly in accordance to how I feel about the album as a whole in a concise, easily readable style. Kudos.


Thanks for the kudos,


I'm a Hells_Unicorn fan lol. I always check out your reviews. I discovered you when I was writing my reviews for the greatest singer metal has ever known, Ronnie James Dio.

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hells_unicorn
Veteran

Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 8:32 pm
Posts: 3053
Location: United States
PostPosted: Wed Aug 21, 2013 10:00 pm 
 

YADF wrote:
I'm a Hells_Unicorn fan lol. I always check out your reviews. I discovered you when I was writing my reviews for the greatest singer metal has ever known, Ronnie James Dio.


Thanks, Dio was one of the band's that actually originally got me into metal back in the mid 90s when I hit my mid-teens after I stopped being into Grunge, it's one of the reason why I took to nearly reviewing every single thing ever put out with his name on it, even miniscule singles and best of/compilations.

On-Topic: The 2 reviews for the new Watain come off as a bit odd. Noctir's is the usual rant about how the band sounds like shit because they abandoned their raw style and are putting out albums that sound like a middle ground between Immortal and Dimmu Borgir, while the positive review is calling the thing progressive, which makes little sense since a solid chunk of what is on "The Wild Hunt" comes directly from either "Blood Fire Death" or the more symphonic side of the early 3rd wave. The only thing really outright different about it is that the guitar solos are complex enough to rival 80s Slayer.
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Acrobat
Eric Olthwaite

Joined: Fri Jul 06, 2007 8:53 am
Posts: 8854
Location: Yorkshire
PostPosted: Thu Aug 22, 2013 7:48 am 
 

http://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/V ... zard_Beast

A very good review of a rather underRATed (geddit?!) album. I can't agree that the album is a metal one, though. Especially not in all caps as he asserts - it's basically Voivod playing proggy Husker Du.
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Zodijackyl
63 Axe Handles High

Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2008 5:39 pm
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Location: United States
PostPosted: Thu Aug 22, 2013 8:17 am 
 

I'm going to combine two of the discussions from the last two pages - RapeTheDead's Summoning reviews and eight-pointers. It is a very good review that covers the sound and style of the album in well, in general and in comparison to their other albums. Not to be too short on the compliments, but there was one point that I wanted to discuss from a musician/engineer's perspective.

"Because of the lack of money these guys have to spend on aspects of being in a band such as touring and extensive promoting, they must have a much greater budget for albums than most, and it's great that they finally seem to be using this to their full advantage."

The band is moderately successful for their style, but I seriously doubt they have a significant budget for the album. I think they probably work with less than a lot of bands do. I think new technology is working to the band's advantage. Their earlier stuff seems to be keyboards interfaced with a SoundBlaster 16 - not easy to work with. The mixing of their older albums suffers a lot, in particular because they had very little control over processing and mixing the synths/guitars/vocals, to the point where LMHSYF sounded like synths played out a SoundBlaster 16 while the guitars and vocals were cranked out of a radio with poor reception. Once they had moved from black metal with synth overlays/interludes, it took them a while to technically get control of it. On to the point about the recording:

Their past three albums were released in 2001, 2006, and 2013. Think about the difference in computers and technology in that time. Home digital recording circa 2000 was something like old Cakewalk - you could put the tracks together, but mixing and manipulating was incredibly difficult, I don't remember if you could even do active adjustments, and it was quite difficult to get things to not sound like a jumbled mess. Primitive interface, primitive tools, and a lot less knowledge available on making it work. It was so crappy that I think Summoning recorded on a four-track instead of doing it digitally - just a guess.

In the past few years, you could spend a couple hundred dollars and put together a good recording setup where you have good software to mix the final product. You have a wider variety of synth tones to chose from, and it is easier to manipulate them. I think what really helped Summoning on this last album is that it is much easier to adjust/mix the guitar and keyboard sounds to fit together, even on a basic setup, just because computing technology has come so far. They can cut and boost certain frequencies, they have better synth tones to work with that still sound like old synths of the instruments they are emulating, but have a less compressed, synthetic sound that is hard to work with. The place where the production suffered in the past was the blend of the synths/metal elements. The synths are at the forefront, and to fit in the guitars, they really needed to mix them right - cutting out certain frequencies, adding reverb more precisely, and fitting them into the picture behind the synths, rather than having them fighting for the same space in the mix.

They are also simply more skilled, they have a lot of experience producing their own stuff, and this time around they have better tools and better skills to make it all work together. To get back to the original point about the budget, with the same keyboards/guitars/mics that they used 10+ years ago, they can do a hell of a lot more with an interface/software that costs $100-500.

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droneriot
cisgender

Joined: Sat Aug 28, 2004 1:17 pm
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 22, 2013 8:28 am 
 

hells_unicorn wrote:
3rd wave.

:ugh:
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hells_unicorn
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 22, 2013 3:06 pm 
 

droneriot wrote:
hells_unicorn wrote:
3rd wave.

:ugh:


Would you prefer "post-2nd wave" or just "mid-90s black metal" then? :scratch:
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xexyzl
Metal newbie

Joined: Fri Jul 24, 2009 12:38 pm
Posts: 263
PostPosted: Thu Aug 22, 2013 4:39 pm 
 

That's interesting Zodi; I know from reading interviews with Protector about Ice Ages that he's really happy with working exclusively on a computer to make music, which makes me think that maybe a lot of their side projects were born out of frustration of trying to meld Metal and synth elements with limited technology in the 90s? I mean, I have no doubt they were passionate about the music they made in DVKE and Ice Ages (I think it shows in the product), but maybe practical concerns played a part.

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GuntherTheUndying
Crimson King, Eater of Worlds

Joined: Mon Apr 24, 2006 4:36 pm
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Location: United States
PostPosted: Thu Aug 22, 2013 11:23 pm 
 

hells_unicorn wrote:
"The Wild Hunt" comes directly from either "Blood Fire Death" or the more symphonic side of the early 3rd wave.

wut.
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RapeTheDead
Stoned Jesus

Joined: Tue Mar 16, 2010 10:48 pm
Posts: 846
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Fri Aug 23, 2013 10:15 am 
 

Zodijackyl wrote:
I'm going to combine two of the discussions from the last two pages - RapeTheDead's Summoning reviews and eight-pointers. It is a very good review that covers the sound and style of the album in well, in general and in comparison to their other albums. Not to be too short on the compliments, but there was one point that I wanted to discuss from a musician/engineer's perspective.


Thank you for both the praise and the 8 points! (i think?) Judging by your Summoning review you're not a huge fan of the band and I'm glad that somebody's opinion of the music doesn't hinder their opinion of the writing- that's happened more than once, believe me. It's also great that it actually inspired discussion of the music here; I honestly couldn't ask for any more from my reviews, so, again, much appreciated, all of you here.

(Starmere, I was originally gonna stick to full-lengths but I'll get to Nightshade Forests one day. Just for you. I just don't know how much more medieval synth I can take, and that EP is much more focused on that side of the music (since it's just the trimmings from the Dol Guldur sessions) and I might end up being put off it by default because of that. I'll revisit it after a long Summoning detox.)


Back to the topic though. Zodi, I definitely agree with you in the sense that modern production techniques were the main contribution to Old Mornings Dawn being a cut above most of their albums. It's likely they didn't really have THAT big of a budget either, but I feel like that's more because they have a good relationship with Napalm (who are pretty large and established), take whatever resources they need to fund their albums and the label allows it because they have a consistent fanbase and they never really need too much studio time or money or anything because of the way Protector and Silenius compose (mostly on computers, only play an instrument when they have to). They probably end up spending a lot less than most, but it's only now that they're using the advantages of a big label like Napalm really advantageously- the only difference in our opinions seems to be that you think that the cheap, tinny sound on LMHSYF was a detriment to the music, but for me, the actual songwriting and the meshing of the layers of sound provides a much greater unity than a streamlined, professional modern production ever could. Now that I've heard the album enough, I can't imagine it with any other sort of sound.
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Thumbman
Big Cube

Joined: Mon Nov 16, 2009 6:47 pm
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Location: Canada
PostPosted: Fri Aug 23, 2013 10:23 am 
 

GuntherTheUndying wrote:
hells_unicorn wrote:
"The Wild Hunt" comes directly from either "Blood Fire Death" or the more symphonic side of the early 3rd wave.

wut.

Yeah, I don't even...
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Metantoine
Slave to Santa

Joined: Sat Jun 21, 2008 5:00 pm
Posts: 12030
Location: Montréal
PostPosted: Fri Aug 23, 2013 6:20 pm 
 

I'm currently writing my 8th review for my French doom series and I think I'll write a series about British prog metal next (I already wrote 2 that I included in this series, Crowned in Earth and The Albion Codex). I like that sort of series, I did it with Finnish weird metal too, what do you guys think of these? And of course, I still only review virgins :)
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Under_Starmere
Abhorrent Fish-Man

Joined: Tue Apr 24, 2007 5:00 pm
Posts: 5568
PostPosted: Fri Aug 23, 2013 8:54 pm 
 

RapeTheDead wrote:
(Starmere, I was originally gonna stick to full-lengths but I'll get to Nightshade Forests one day. Just for you. I just don't know how much more medieval synth I can take, and that EP is much more focused on that side of the music (since it's just the trimmings from the Dol Guldur sessions) and I might end up being put off it by default because of that. I'll revisit it after a long Summoning detox.)


Fair enough! A man cannot live on medieval synth alone. Though I don't think Nightshade Forests is really any more synth-heavy than any of their other albums...it's basically the same. Honestly I think it's one of their strongest efforts, offering a great, tight selection of tracks and quite a low misstep rate, plus it contains the wonderful "Habbanan Beneath the Stars," one of their best tracks ever, imo. Like any Summoning album, it's got its moments that you just kind of have to let slide, but it's a great work nonetheless.
Also importantly, it came from a Bygone Age....from Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame on, they somehow got it in their heads that media/speech samples made their music better. They most certainly do not. "A Distant Flame Before the Sun" foreshadowed that, and though I wish they'd never gone in that direction, they at least handle it with enough skill and surround it with enough epic music that you can kind of look the other way. For the most part. It's really the thing that I dislike the most about Let Mortal Heroes... and what makes that album one of their worst for me. That and quite a few of the tracks are compositionally on the weaker side of their oeuvre.
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RapeTheDead
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 24, 2013 3:32 pm 
 

I'll agree that "A Distant Flame Before the Sun" is probably one of their weaker tracks but I dunno; maybe it's just because LMHSYF is the first album that really made Summoning click for me. I just have a sort of nostalgic appreciation for it in that sense. The samples and stuff make the vocals a more fleshed-out and standalone element to me, but I guess that's where our opinions divide.
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Under_Starmere
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 24, 2013 4:48 pm 
 

Hmm, that's interesting. I've always found media/speech samples to be a reeeaallly tricky thing for artists to integrate into their work successfully, unless it's low in the mix and just sort of blends in. Ministry is really the only band I've ever encountered that was able to make heavy use of that sort of thing and make it a seamless, fitting part of their sound. I guess Skinny Puppy, as well, to a certain extent.
Anyhoo, I think "A Distant Flame Before the Sun" is actually a strong track on its own (I'd give the Weakest Track on Stronghold Award to "The Loud Music of the Sky" easily), it's really just the excessive use of repeated media samples toward the end that don't fit for me. The repetition is what especially bugs me... used sparingly that sort of thing can be used to good effect, but just senselessly repeating samples over and over wears them out immediately, drains them of their effect, and drags the rest of the atmosphere down as a result. Summoning has a problem of sort of senselessly repeating things in general, but it's especially bad in the case of samples because it sounds so mechanically pasted in. All their albums are repetition-heavy but the older ones have a more organic feel to them because they lack the recurring sample aspect that draws more attention to the programmed nature of the music.
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 26, 2013 12:00 am 
 

Yeah, media/speech samples are usually absolutely terrible in metal; part of me thinks it's because metal is supposed to be intrinsically fantastical, inhuman and otherworldly and having somebody just...talking over the music really hurts that and just sounds reeeally uncomfortable and out of place, but I guess Summoning's reliance on standard black metal vocals always felt like a hindrance of sorts and it's refreshing just in principle for me to hear them trying a mix of different things vocally; their black metal rasps are well-delivered and everything but when the rest of the soundscape has such a massive presence and scope it always puzzled me why they made the vocals so stark and static.

"The Loud Music of the Sky" is one of my favorite tracks off of Stronghold! :( Maybe it's because it teeters dangerously close to what we now know as "post-black metal" at times and I have an unfortunate soft spot for that stuff, but yeah, that one always gives me the chills. Surely we can at least both agree that "Long Lost to Where No Pathway Goes" is one of their finest, right? The music sounding almost deliberately repetitive and programmed never felt like a hindrance to me, either, but I'm a weirdo that thinks that Summoning gets better the further removed they are from metal. I usually don't think that sort of thing, but I can't argue with my own tastes. The fewer ideas in a song, the better, as long as they're good ones. It's why I eat shit like Drudkh, Darkspace and Branikald up.
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