That's my favorite of the bunchHow does Pale Communion sit in there for youse guys?
That's my favorite of the bunchHow does Pale Communion sit in there for youse guys?
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
Very strong album. I wanted badly to review it at the time it was released, but I was dismayed when one of our other guys had already jumped on it. I had a lot to say about it!Originally Posted by chalkpie
Very true....Watershed and Heritage should exchange album names
But yeah man, I'm diggin it. How does Pale Communion sit in there for youse guys?
Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.
*** Join me in the Garden of Delights for 3 hours of tune-spinning... every Saturday at 5pm EST on Deep Nuggets radio! www.deepnuggets.com ***
Not too late, right? I would very much like to hear your thoughts on that album (Hint hint)Very strong album. I wanted badly to review it at the time it was released, but I was dismayed when one of our other guys had already jumped on it. I had a lot to say about it!
Did you review any of the others?
I did, actually! Not one of my better reviews, but...Not too late, right? I would very much like to hear your thoughts on that album (Hint hint)
Did you review any of the others?
https://www.velvetthunder.co.uk/opet...nuclear-blast/
Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.
*** Join me in the Garden of Delights for 3 hours of tune-spinning... every Saturday at 5pm EST on Deep Nuggets radio! www.deepnuggets.com ***
Another great review man. I appreciate your perspective on this album.
Thanks man, it was fun to re-read after a year. I tend to forget most of them pretty quickly. I did review Sorceress as well, but that was for the print magazine.
Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.
*** Join me in the Garden of Delights for 3 hours of tune-spinning... every Saturday at 5pm EST on Deep Nuggets radio! www.deepnuggets.com ***
Good tunes on all of em with Eternal Rains Will Come my favorite tune by Opeth.
no tunes, no dynamics, no nosebone
Yeah man - great stuff. I really dig that dissonant chord on guitars ringing out about 20 seconds in. Vocal harmonies also really flippin good on this tune (and album). I get more mileage out of Newpeth (Heritage on...) as time goes on. Grows on you like a bad Swedish fungus.
I just hope they (he/MA) change the production on whatever new album they make in the future - both Heritage and Communion sound wonderful, while Sorceress and Venenum (mostly) sound like dogshit, especially the drums on Sorceress. I guess its not a coincidence that Willy Stevenson was involved on the "good sounding" albums. Or maybe go back and get Jens Bogren back on board who engineered Ghost Reveries and Watershed, which I also think sound fantastic. The guitars on those two sound heavy and phatt as phuck!
If it isn't Krautrock, it's krap.
"And it's only the giving
That makes you what you are" - Ian Anderson
Totally agree with you on your production notes!
no tunes, no dynamics, no nosebone
Heritage and Pale Communion have proven to be real keepers for me. They stand the test of time very well. Initially I was intrigued by online samples that I kept coming back to. Only after about a year of occasional sampling did I decide to pull the trigger on PC and then H a while later. I was also initially reluctant to take them seriously because it seemed like a case of a metal band being dilettantes with prog. Turned out Opeth were the real deal as far as prog is concerned.
I had tried to like Opeth with Damnation and BWP a decade previous but those never caught fire with me. I even saw them twice back in that era. Good but nothing that would make me a fan.
There are variations and levels. Some of what's usually namechecked in here as "CM-vocals" are nothing of the sort but rather grindcore-aggressive vox (as with Meshuggah or Fuck the Facts or Converge or, for that matter, most Slayer), which basically involves a trained ability to scream and yell one's head off. Meshuggah's Jens Kidman is arguably the greatest one out there at this specific approach; he has made a habit out of calling his voice "more or less a percussion instrument with words".
On the other hand, "proper" growl is a completely different set of principles in utilization of functions and (consequently) frequencies to the throat. This kind of vocal antic is essentially associated with death- and black-metal music, not math- or grindcore. Kreator and Cannibal Corpse were early purveyors, but they took their initial scent from Venom, whose bassist/"singer" Cronos actually sought to sing like the hard- and grindcore vocalists but couldn't muster it. In his own words, his voice is (apparently) rather weak and has to be distorted multifold in performance.
I progressive rock, acts like Kayo Dot and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum have applied various versions of the effect, but rarely as a consistant feature and always to point a narrative impact to the song. Nils Frykdahl's different displays of it in Sleepytime, for example (he also doeas Tom Waits/attemptive Howlin' Wolf), is almost always intended to signal a consciously "cartoonish" effect.
Opeth, however, abbreviated from the world of (late era) death-metal in the first place. As did Anathema, notably on early releases like Pentecost III - yet they never really ventured full-on cookie. In contrast to their contestors My Dying Bride, whose "The Sexuality of Bereavement" (included as bonus to the European issue of Angel and the Dark River in '95) is one of the few places where I actually think it works without conflicting with the overall aura and message of the song/lyric.
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
Kayo Dot's predecessor maudlin of the Well was my entry point; I mean, I'd heard growls/screams before including Opeth but it never did anything for me. But "Stones of October Sobbing" just sort of blew my ears out and it was jarring, unexpected, and IMHO absolutely perfect for what was being delivered via the music.
Opeth's clean albums have lost me, although it isn't the change of vox as much as the change of music that broke the spell. But it's been covered elsewhere, and all respect to those who enjoy it
If you're actually reading this then chances are you already have my last album but if NOT and you're curious:
https://battema.bandcamp.com/
Also, Ephemeral Sun: it's a thing and we like making things that might be your thing: https://ephemeralsun.bandcamp.com
^^ My Dying Bride is another one that I like, but don't love, even though it feels like a band that should work for me. Saw them at MDF a few years ago doing the full "Turn Loose the Swans" album and they were quite good live.
If you're actually reading this then chances are you already have my last album but if NOT and you're curious:
https://battema.bandcamp.com/
Also, Ephemeral Sun: it's a thing and we like making things that might be your thing: https://ephemeralsun.bandcamp.com
^ I saw them in concert sometime in the late 90s and have to say that I was most disappointed. The overly theatrical contrast between a highlighted "angelic" violin player (white oak fiddle, none other; considered extremely exotic for a metal act back then) and a puke-drunken wannabe-extreme-metal act didn't exactly serve matters. Standards in those days of "artistic" metal weren't always too much to hooray about anyway, which renders it all the more impressive and fascinating how fabulous some metal bands became with the onset of the 2000s. Of course, by this time "avant-metal" had made its entrance long ago already with the likes of Atheist, Watchtower and Cynic - all of them fairly indebted in one way/sense/extent to Voivod.
Yet I quite like the "Bereavement" video. And I remember their rendition of Michael Gira's "Failure", which is one of the darkest tunes ever written and takes some balls to cover. Kudos to them. I suppose.
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
The video is cool, nice brooding feel to both the music and the visuals.
And yeah...I'm not outright hating on My Dying Bride but I can't say I'm a rabid enthusiast either.
Roughest metal show I've seen (as in the bad kind of rough) was Paradise Lost and Katatonia on a bill together. My pal is a huge fan of Paradise Lost and I was happy to just tag along. Both bands were mostly backing tracks and weird kinds of posturing (not the best analogy but kind of like Billy Idol's Eyes without a Face video...all punk posturing and gyrating in front of a total 80's synth pop ballad). It was a strangely neutered metal performance (although if we're being fair, at this point both bands had moved pretty far from anything that metal in their sound).
Best was Oranssi (above) and Cult of Luna who, either they were doing it all 100% live (right down to dual/alternating drummers when needed), or they were masking their backing tracks ridiculously well. Either way, both were thrilling, energetic live shows.
If you're actually reading this then chances are you already have my last album but if NOT and you're curious:
https://battema.bandcamp.com/
Also, Ephemeral Sun: it's a thing and we like making things that might be your thing: https://ephemeralsun.bandcamp.com
We felt the same for a while....until very recently. I was digging a few tunes here and there (always loved the lost Ian Anderson tune Will O the Wisp), but it felt "bland" and uninspired to me. I have totally changed my tune. I have had Heritage and Pail Communism on repeat mode and really loving 97% of the stuff now. Not sure what changed? Some say it was the drugs. Some say it was the attitude. Some say it was the altitude. I say it was all those things plus the weather.
Opeth's clean albums have lost me, although it isn't the change of vox as much as the change of music that broke the spell. But it's been covered elsewhere, and all respect to those who enjoy it
If it isn't Krautrock, it's krap.
"And it's only the giving
That makes you what you are" - Ian Anderson
It's not like this is a Steven Wilson thread...we can all like what we like and be happy for each other
Prog doesn't light my fire like it used to, and hasn't in quite some time. So a band like Opeth leaning into that sound is probably the opposite of what I'm looking for in new music. So that's on me and my changing tastes, not them.
If you're actually reading this then chances are you already have my last album but if NOT and you're curious:
https://battema.bandcamp.com/
Also, Ephemeral Sun: it's a thing and we like making things that might be your thing: https://ephemeralsun.bandcamp.com
No criticism intended at all. Just posting an observation that I'm digging these after quite a long time of not. Yeah, not sure what I "want" in music anymore, but when something bites I just go with it.It's not like this is a Steven Wilson thread...we can all like what we like and be happy for each other
Prog doesn't light my fire like it used to, and hasn't in quite some time. So a band like Opeth leaning into that sound is probably the opposite of what I'm looking for in new music. So that's on me and my changing tastes, not them.
Makes sense to me
You should give the new Oranssi Pazuzu a stab...it's bonkers and heavy and trippy in all the best ways. Hell, one spot in this tune even starts to invoke Magma:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScMbsZW3qn4
If you're actually reading this then chances are you already have my last album but if NOT and you're curious:
https://battema.bandcamp.com/
Also, Ephemeral Sun: it's a thing and we like making things that might be your thing: https://ephemeralsun.bandcamp.com
Will do and will report back. Cheers.Makes sense to me
You should give the new Oranssi Pazuzu a stab...it's bonkers and heavy and trippy in all the best ways. Hell, one spot in this tune even starts to invoke Magma:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScMbsZW3qn4
Have you ever noticed that the drums on Heritage are completely in the middle there is no panning that I can tell. And I love it for some reason
I have not but will check out. Drums on Heritage and Pale sound killer. Not sure what happened on the latest two?
https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/op...ce-march-2020/
In case you've been wondering what Mikael has been up to...
Thanks, Frank. Interesting information! NP: Storm Corrosion
What is a Leper Affinity?
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