I suppose it is inevitable that a person's favorites will change. Music is a creative pursuit and is thus subject to taste from the POV of the musician and the listener. In this post, I'll take a look at my favorite bands from a few years ago and where I jumped off the proverbial bandwagon. Neither list should be assumed to be comprehensive. There were probably others I could have added to both lists (e.g. Slayer).
Favorites (ca. 2008/2009):
Rush, Tool, Burnt by the Sun, Lamb of God, Mastodon, High on Fire, Meshuggah, Kylesa, Nile, Opeth.
Favorites (2015):
Rush, Tool, Burnt by the Sun, Krallice, Ludicra, Yakuza, VHOL, Inquisition, Immolation.
In some ways, it's harder to say definitively which bands would qualify as "favorites" in 2014. There are certainly some caveats on my list as it stands: Krallice & Ludicra make it with three albums, Yakuza & Inquisition with two, Immolation with two plus an EP, and VHOL with one.
As far as the bands I removed from my favorites between 2008/2009 & 2014:
Lamb of God: Resolution (2012). Seems to signify the end of an era. The progression exhibited through their first four albums stopped with Wrath and Resolution acts as more of a regression than anything else.
Mastodon: The Hunter (2011). The band has changed from metal to pop-leaning rock. Harsh vocals abandoned, as well as most of the heavy riffs.
High on Fire: De Vermis Mysteriis (2012). Similar to Lamb of God, High on Fire previously exhibited progression and this album ends that.
Meshuggah: Koloss (2012). After the triumphant ObZen (2008), Koloss was as much or more of a regression as the previous three bands.
Kylesa: Ultraviolet (2013). To be honest, I was leery of future output after Spiral Shadow (2010), which sounded like a turn toward alt-rock/pop.
Nile: Place taken by Immolation, more or less. I enjoyed At the Gate of Sethu (2012); despite it being a regression in production/presentation, it has one thing that most of the above albums don't, that being riffs.
Opeth: Heritage (2011). I was leery after Watershed (2008), but I couldn't have imagined they'd fall into irrelevance so succinctly.
As far as the bands I added to my favorites between 2008/2009 & 2014:
Krallice: Diotima (2011) and the year of 2011 in general represent a significant increase in the number of bands and number of albums I listen to. Thanks to Diotima, I came to appreciate their 2008 S/T and jumped on the bandwagon for Years Past Matter too. I eagerly await new material.
Ludicra: The Tenant (2010). They may have broken up in 2011, but three of their four LP's (and an EP) represent some of the finest metal the Bay Area has produced (no easy feat, that). I consider The Tenant to be the best metal album of 2010.
Yakuza: Of Seismic Consequence (2010). Not only did this album introduce me to the band, but to Profound Lore Records as an underground metal entity worth following. Yakuza followed with Beyul (2012); I consider both albums to be among the best in their respective years of release.
VHOL: VHOL (2013). Topped my Best of 2013 list. New material forthcoming. Further explanation is unnecessary.
Inquisition: Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm (2011). That's a mouthful. And one of the albums that piqued my interest in black metal, despite the fact that 99% of BM sounds nothing like it. Croak away, sir!
Immolation: Harnessing Ruin (2005). As much as I love this album, the next two didn't do much for me. They really became a favorite with Kingdom of Conspiracy (2013), but I was fairly certain that they were onto something with the Providence EP. What do you know, I was right for once.
As far as the bands that hold a place in both lists:
Rush: My favorite band, regardless of genre. Nobody will top what they did from 1975-1984 (with Power Windows and Counterparts as honorable mentions).
Tool: My second favorite band. Although they haven't released anything since 2006 (the less engaging by their standard 10,000 Days), their previous material stands as some of my favorite music that wasn't produced by Rush.
Burnt by the Sun: After a short hiatus from heavy music and a couple of years where I listened predominantly to thrash and nu-metal, Burnt by the Sun was the band to get me into metal. They went out on top with Heart of Darkness. As yet, no other metal band has approximated their style, nor do I expect anyone to do so.
Showing posts with label Metal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Metal. Show all posts
July 21, 2014
July 18, 2014
Strike While the Iron Is Hot
When it comes to reviewing metal albums, timing is important. Although I haven't strove to be the first to have my opinion out there, my preference is to get it out as soon as possible before people stop caring about the album enough to read reviews about it.
I don't read reviews all that often myself.
I've been thinking about my own process of reviewing albums and the music that I've listened to in 2014. When I started the blog last year the foundation was intended to be metal reviews. But I was doing work here and elsewhere, and by the time 2013 ended, the spark had pretty much died out.
That explains why I reviewed four things in January and didn't do much writing about metal until recently. It's a part of the story, at least.
Since February, I had misplaced my urge to write, mostly because the music I was listening to just wasn't inspiring me. As a result, view counts in February and March tumbled.
Now that I've found the spark to write again, I find that I'm without a lot to write about, unless I decide to get on a schedule for putting out metal reviews. And this is where the problem that I've been mulling over for the last few days comes into play.
To be honest, I don't know how I feel about most of what I've heard.
I don't feel comfortable committing to a review that states unequivocally "I like [album]" or "I dislike [album]". The purpose of Nothing Has Changed after all, is to attempt quality writing. I may not always succeed, but damn it if I don't try. And if I'm writing mediocre reviews of mediocre albums...well, that's just not acceptable to me. So in the interim I've concentrated mostly on sports and manga, with the occasional interlude about metal.
I want to be able to say something definitive about an album that I review. That requires me to have a certain level of familiarity with it. Unfortunately, acquiring familiarity with each album that I've been listening to for the last couple of months has become difficult. Not impossible, by any means, but difficult enough that it has impaired my productivity.
The reason I'm not able to say much of anything definitively is the utter mediocrity that 2014 has brought us. When I heard many of the albums that appear on my Best Metal Albums of 2013 list, not only was I inspired, but I knew whether or not I liked them in just a few listens.
Metal in 2014 is not nearly as cut-and-dry. There are a lot of releases that have yet to hit me in that way, but the few that have are likely to show up at the end of the year. One problem with that, though, is that so many of them have been covered nigh-obsessively by other metal writers on the internet.
While I like to get my name out there as much as the next guy, I don't care to look like a bandwagon hopper. And if I were to review Thantifaxath or Yautja or Alraune, I get the feeling that I'd look like I'm jumping on the hype train.
I'm not into hype. And while I appreciate being a part of the consensus on certain albums, it's usually the case that people are in agreement because of some nebulous factor that I don't usually see or understand, because I'm coming at these albums from my own idiosyncratic perspective (much discussed in other entries).
So while I would like to be more productive as it relates to reviewing albums I'm listening to, I will continue to refrain from doing so until I'm comfortable with offering a definitive view that I won't have to go back and edit later.
I won't be ahead of the curve, by any means. But I'm fine with that.
I don't read reviews all that often myself.
I've been thinking about my own process of reviewing albums and the music that I've listened to in 2014. When I started the blog last year the foundation was intended to be metal reviews. But I was doing work here and elsewhere, and by the time 2013 ended, the spark had pretty much died out.
That explains why I reviewed four things in January and didn't do much writing about metal until recently. It's a part of the story, at least.
Since February, I had misplaced my urge to write, mostly because the music I was listening to just wasn't inspiring me. As a result, view counts in February and March tumbled.
Now that I've found the spark to write again, I find that I'm without a lot to write about, unless I decide to get on a schedule for putting out metal reviews. And this is where the problem that I've been mulling over for the last few days comes into play.
To be honest, I don't know how I feel about most of what I've heard.
I don't feel comfortable committing to a review that states unequivocally "I like [album]" or "I dislike [album]". The purpose of Nothing Has Changed after all, is to attempt quality writing. I may not always succeed, but damn it if I don't try. And if I'm writing mediocre reviews of mediocre albums...well, that's just not acceptable to me. So in the interim I've concentrated mostly on sports and manga, with the occasional interlude about metal.
I want to be able to say something definitive about an album that I review. That requires me to have a certain level of familiarity with it. Unfortunately, acquiring familiarity with each album that I've been listening to for the last couple of months has become difficult. Not impossible, by any means, but difficult enough that it has impaired my productivity.
The reason I'm not able to say much of anything definitively is the utter mediocrity that 2014 has brought us. When I heard many of the albums that appear on my Best Metal Albums of 2013 list, not only was I inspired, but I knew whether or not I liked them in just a few listens.
Metal in 2014 is not nearly as cut-and-dry. There are a lot of releases that have yet to hit me in that way, but the few that have are likely to show up at the end of the year. One problem with that, though, is that so many of them have been covered nigh-obsessively by other metal writers on the internet.
While I like to get my name out there as much as the next guy, I don't care to look like a bandwagon hopper. And if I were to review Thantifaxath or Yautja or Alraune, I get the feeling that I'd look like I'm jumping on the hype train.
I'm not into hype. And while I appreciate being a part of the consensus on certain albums, it's usually the case that people are in agreement because of some nebulous factor that I don't usually see or understand, because I'm coming at these albums from my own idiosyncratic perspective (much discussed in other entries).
So while I would like to be more productive as it relates to reviewing albums I'm listening to, I will continue to refrain from doing so until I'm comfortable with offering a definitive view that I won't have to go back and edit later.
I won't be ahead of the curve, by any means. But I'm fine with that.
July 13, 2014
Reevaluations
If you follow me on Twitter (@big_red01027) you're probably aware that I use the hashtag #NP to indicate what I'm listening to.
I try to keep these unique. That usually means that when I return to something (which I do more often than my feed would suggest), I don't use the hashtag and instead offer up some kind of commentary about the record in question.
I don't pretend that I'm going to feel a certain way about an album for all time. Sure, my judgments are swift and cutting, but they're not always lasting.
Two bands that I've reconsidered in the last couple of days are Agalloch and Yellow Eyes.
In the case of Agalloch, I listened to their new one, The Serpent & the Sphere, and the previous Faustian Echoes EP. The former surprised me by being so enthralling and just damn enjoyable. The latter is shorter, but no less fiery.
These two releases led me to wonder aloud, where was that fire on Marrow of the Spirit? No matter where I looked, I saw people extolling its virtues incessantly back in 2010. It topped lists all over the internet.
I wouldn't call myself an Agalloch fan at this point. I have no intention of revisiting their other albums (especially Marrow of the Spirit), because honestly I don't really have enough time for it.
But I wouldn't be surprised to see The Serpent & the Sphere on my best of 2014 list. That album does something that very few have done this year: it is intriguing and maintains throughout.
Yellow Eyes is a band that comes highly recommended from various corners of the internet. As usual, I didn't quite get it. Their debut LP, Hammer of Night, seemed like an uninteresting (aside from the last track) Krallice-esque slice of USBM.
I gave it another try earlier and was pleasantly surprised. I was still listening through the Bandcamp player, so it sounded the same (no EQ option generally means that albums sound flat, no matter how well they're produced), but I reacted to it differently.
I guess that's the point of reevaluating releases. It gives you the chance to react to the album differently. After all, the music didn't change, but apparently I did.
One other thing I should note: I've closed down the comment section, mostly out of spite due to inactivity. Nothing Has Changed gets plenty of views for my taste; I've said this before, but it bears repeating that the blog has performed in excess of any expectation I might have placed on it, especially in 2014 when I've not been riding anyone else's coattails.
So, dear reader, if you like this piece and want to discuss it (or anything else, really), feel free to drop me a line on Twitter. You can find it at the top of this post.
I try to keep these unique. That usually means that when I return to something (which I do more often than my feed would suggest), I don't use the hashtag and instead offer up some kind of commentary about the record in question.
I don't pretend that I'm going to feel a certain way about an album for all time. Sure, my judgments are swift and cutting, but they're not always lasting.
Two bands that I've reconsidered in the last couple of days are Agalloch and Yellow Eyes.
In the case of Agalloch, I listened to their new one, The Serpent & the Sphere, and the previous Faustian Echoes EP. The former surprised me by being so enthralling and just damn enjoyable. The latter is shorter, but no less fiery.
These two releases led me to wonder aloud, where was that fire on Marrow of the Spirit? No matter where I looked, I saw people extolling its virtues incessantly back in 2010. It topped lists all over the internet.
I wouldn't call myself an Agalloch fan at this point. I have no intention of revisiting their other albums (especially Marrow of the Spirit), because honestly I don't really have enough time for it.
But I wouldn't be surprised to see The Serpent & the Sphere on my best of 2014 list. That album does something that very few have done this year: it is intriguing and maintains throughout.
Yellow Eyes is a band that comes highly recommended from various corners of the internet. As usual, I didn't quite get it. Their debut LP, Hammer of Night, seemed like an uninteresting (aside from the last track) Krallice-esque slice of USBM.
I gave it another try earlier and was pleasantly surprised. I was still listening through the Bandcamp player, so it sounded the same (no EQ option generally means that albums sound flat, no matter how well they're produced), but I reacted to it differently.
I guess that's the point of reevaluating releases. It gives you the chance to react to the album differently. After all, the music didn't change, but apparently I did.
One other thing I should note: I've closed down the comment section, mostly out of spite due to inactivity. Nothing Has Changed gets plenty of views for my taste; I've said this before, but it bears repeating that the blog has performed in excess of any expectation I might have placed on it, especially in 2014 when I've not been riding anyone else's coattails.
So, dear reader, if you like this piece and want to discuss it (or anything else, really), feel free to drop me a line on Twitter. You can find it at the top of this post.
July 3, 2014
Scowling at the Dictionary: Hook vs. Riff
In writing about Mastodon and their vocal "hooks", I started thinking about what that word means and how it might differ from the word "riff".
What better source to consult than the dictionary, right? In this case, dictionary.reference.com.
Here is where things get dicey.
First, let's give the definitions of each word in their proper musical context:
Hook means: "an appealing melodic phrase, orchestral ornament, refrain, etc., often important to a popular song's commercial success". (source)
Riff means: "a melodic phrase, often constantly repeated, forming an accompaniment or part of an accompaniment for a soloist". (source)
Notice the thing each definition has in common. Like I said, dicey.
I've made mention of my guiding musical principle: "rhythm determines melody". In my usage of riff as an idea or as an easily identifiable piece of a song, I emphasize the fact that rhythm is the most important aspect. Melody is secondary and often not important.
For example, take the riff that is first played around 5:50 in Owl's "You Are the Moon, I Am the Night". Given that I don't have official tablature of the song and don't play by ear, I can't specifically say what notes are being played or the precise rhythm.
What I can say is that the riff is comprised of two notes: a low note that sounds palm-muted, and a second note at least one octave higher (if not more) that is then bent. The bend is slow and gradual. The riff is given space to breathe by Patrick Schroeder's drumming and is accompanied by a second guitar that plays a repetitive tapping phrase. Schroeder then adds double-bass to the beat to give this part of the song extra force.
I've discussed Owl before in my review of their second LP. The point of the above paragraph is to illustrate that Christian Kolf could have used any two notes to make that riff and it probably would have worked. Thus, the melody is secondary to the rhythm (and especially the use of a slow, gradual bend) here.
So in the context of metal and the way I use the word, riff should be defined as "a rhythmic phrase, often repeated, forming the backbone of a song".
A hook, on the other hand, has an insistent quality that is not present in a riff. It is not composed based on the principle of "rhythm determines melody" and in fact only exists to grab the listener's attention forcefully.
That is the difference as I see it. A hook grabs the listener via melody, while a riff is rhythmic and allows the listener to meet it on his/her own terms.
What better source to consult than the dictionary, right? In this case, dictionary.reference.com.
Here is where things get dicey.
First, let's give the definitions of each word in their proper musical context:
Hook means: "an appealing melodic phrase, orchestral ornament, refrain, etc., often important to a popular song's commercial success". (source)
Riff means: "a melodic phrase, often constantly repeated, forming an accompaniment or part of an accompaniment for a soloist". (source)
Notice the thing each definition has in common. Like I said, dicey.
I've made mention of my guiding musical principle: "rhythm determines melody". In my usage of riff as an idea or as an easily identifiable piece of a song, I emphasize the fact that rhythm is the most important aspect. Melody is secondary and often not important.
For example, take the riff that is first played around 5:50 in Owl's "You Are the Moon, I Am the Night". Given that I don't have official tablature of the song and don't play by ear, I can't specifically say what notes are being played or the precise rhythm.
What I can say is that the riff is comprised of two notes: a low note that sounds palm-muted, and a second note at least one octave higher (if not more) that is then bent. The bend is slow and gradual. The riff is given space to breathe by Patrick Schroeder's drumming and is accompanied by a second guitar that plays a repetitive tapping phrase. Schroeder then adds double-bass to the beat to give this part of the song extra force.
I've discussed Owl before in my review of their second LP. The point of the above paragraph is to illustrate that Christian Kolf could have used any two notes to make that riff and it probably would have worked. Thus, the melody is secondary to the rhythm (and especially the use of a slow, gradual bend) here.
So in the context of metal and the way I use the word, riff should be defined as "a rhythmic phrase, often repeated, forming the backbone of a song".
A hook, on the other hand, has an insistent quality that is not present in a riff. It is not composed based on the principle of "rhythm determines melody" and in fact only exists to grab the listener's attention forcefully.
That is the difference as I see it. A hook grabs the listener via melody, while a riff is rhythmic and allows the listener to meet it on his/her own terms.
June 27, 2014
How's Your 2014?
After last year's (somewhat) successful post outlining what I was looking forward to in 2013 and talking about what I liked in the first half of the year in metal, I thought I would do the same thing this year.
Then I saw this, from @Metaltxt on Twitter:
Well, my work is done, isn't it? Since I can't do funnier and most people find seriousness to be an utter bore, I think I'll leave it at that.
Thanks to Metal.txt for the image and the lulz. There's nothing like the lulz in this case, really.
Also, if you haven't checked them out already (and I'm betting you have), go listen to the new releases from Alraune, Thantifaxath, Yautja, and Diocletian.
And don't forget Incantation either!
At any rate, here's what I'm looking forward to for the rest of 2014 (at least, that I know the release dates for):
Corrosion of Conformity - IX [7/1, delayed from 6/24]
Origin - Omnipresent [7/8]
Wolvhammer - Clawing into Black Sun [7/8]
Mutilation Rites - Harbinger [7/22]
Overkill - White Devil Armory [7/22]
Pallbearer - Foundations of Burden [8/19]
YOB - Clearing the Path to Ascend [9/2]
Cannibal Corpse - A Skeletal Domain [9/16]
Decapitated - Blood Mantra [9/30]
Witch Mountain - Mobile of Angels [9/30]
Occultation - Silence in the Ancestral House [10/14]
If those dates change, I'll try to note them.
Given that the playoffs have been over in the NBA and NHL for a while, I'm thinking that I might get back into music reviews. Otherwise, until The Bridge starts its second season, I really have nothing else to write about other than Bleach.
Then I saw this, from @Metaltxt on Twitter:
Thanks to Metal.txt for the image and the lulz. There's nothing like the lulz in this case, really.
Also, if you haven't checked them out already (and I'm betting you have), go listen to the new releases from Alraune, Thantifaxath, Yautja, and Diocletian.
And don't forget Incantation either!
At any rate, here's what I'm looking forward to for the rest of 2014 (at least, that I know the release dates for):
Corrosion of Conformity - IX [7/1, delayed from 6/24]
Origin - Omnipresent [7/8]
Wolvhammer - Clawing into Black Sun [7/8]
Mutilation Rites - Harbinger [7/22]
Overkill - White Devil Armory [7/22]
Pallbearer - Foundations of Burden [8/19]
YOB - Clearing the Path to Ascend [9/2]
Cannibal Corpse - A Skeletal Domain [9/16]
Decapitated - Blood Mantra [9/30]
Witch Mountain - Mobile of Angels [9/30]
Occultation - Silence in the Ancestral House [10/14]
If those dates change, I'll try to note them.
Given that the playoffs have been over in the NBA and NHL for a while, I'm thinking that I might get back into music reviews. Otherwise, until The Bridge starts its second season, I really have nothing else to write about other than Bleach.
June 23, 2014
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