Mordy's Metal Listening Club - New Albums Every Monday

Hahaha this bit in "Absinthe with Faust" reminds me sooo much of the Tenacious D inward-singing skit. Never caught that before.

haven't listened to any of this week's picks yet but I'd just like to say that this thread has been top-notch.

I'll say a little about Fates Warning to start my day. My own personal creation-myth for theatrical progressive metal holds that Queensrÿche defined it with Rage for Order, but that it was Fates Warning's Perfect Symmetry and especially Parallels that made it into a genre, as opposed to just one band's particular style. (And later Dream Theater took it over and led it astray, but that hadn't happened yet.) Fates Warning always worked with a more muted and more limited palette than the other two, and although I think that eventually wore on me (A Pleasant Shade of Gray, in particular, seemed helplessly aware of its own drabness), in some ways it makes these earlier albums more intriguing. I.e., anybody can make complex-seeming music by layering enough stuff onto it, but to make complex music with fewer layers you actually have to compose it.

I know for some FW fans the Arch era is the only one that matters, but I admit I never learned to love his singing. Alder, conversely, I adore. The Journey comparison is both cheaply dismissive (Alder and Perry belong to a long tradition of singing that neither of them remotely invented, and Perry is the notorious poster-child for its wimpiest manifestation) and technically accurate (they do both belong to it, clearly). For me the key thing about Alder's style on Parallels is that he provides the legato ties that hold together the twitch-shifting turns of the music behind him. In a lot of metal, everybody goes full-speed, or full-force, or whatever full-thing the band happens to be going for. Contrast isn't unheard-of, but metal's defining quality it ain't.

listening to "abinsthe with faust" from nymphetamine right now (a++ title if nothing else). this album has some catchy riffs for sure but i can't really get w/the camp/goth elements and terrible keyb/string sounds.

somewhere near the end now and i'm pretty bored. i was surprised by "guilded c***" because it was pretty aggressive and i thought this band wasn't really like that. so the rest of it has been disappointing me by fulfilling my expectations. also: TOO LONG!

soooo many piano/ambient/fake-choir intros and outros

Am a week behind but I'm gonna try this Emtombed thing once the football ends.

It's ended

Thus the week behind. Let a fella catch up, gonna still get in all of this weeks listening.

"All ILXors and Lurkers welcome!*"

*except ones that saw this thread a week late.

I think he meant that the match is over. You're welcome to keep talking about last week's albums.

ah glenn, you and yr logic.

currently listening, and enjoying. being roughly the 14th metal record i've ever listened to though, i have nothing to say about it as I don't yet know anything else about the genre that falls into 'i like this' or 'i don't like this'.

yeah, the silly sod posted after the game already finished

winston feel free to give albums ratings based on arsenal players ;)

cradle of filth is definitely a Lolmunia to my eyes

Kyuss - Armand Traore (Talented sure, but needs to grow a fucking pair before worthy of actually playing.)

Entombed - Thomas Vermaelan (Hard headed motherfucker, like a lot against my better judgement.)

If Entombed is actually some weak shizz then my bad, 14th metal record and all that.

i thought you were checking out the EOY metal polls?

I meant to and forgot. Still have the spotify playlist, so I may still sometime.

you said that about the 2008 poll!

I actually downloaded and listened to a bunch of them! The few metal records I have actually listened to are basically 10 random 2008 things and a couple Sabbath things.

you need to get to it

So the Fates Warning 30-second clips on iTunes are not giving me hope. I never "got" Dream Theater either.

The Fate's Warning is way better than Dream Theater.

Absolutely, Dream Theater doesn't compare to early Fates. Awaken the Guardian is actually the album of theirs I prefer.

Well, that gives me a little more motivation to give it a spin, but still not entirely sold.

Yeah, I think my biggest problem will be the earnest, smooth vocals. I like harsh, growling vocals in my metal. I don't like being soothed. Have a feeling I'd like an instrumental version much better. But away we go...

^^ Agreed x100

The musicianship on display is fantastic, so I totally get that part of the appeal.

Seven songs in now and I would definitely have to say I'm enjoying this quite a bit more than any of the Dream Theater I've heard, but the vocals are still not doing a thing for me. The guitar work (is most of this Matheos? don't know the history of this band) is fantastic, easily my favorite part.

Wrapped up with "The Road Goes On Forever" which represents exactly what I don't like about this sort of thing - really earnest and borderline cheese lyrics, showy percussion that reminds me of new age music, and a just general too smooth vibe.

The problem with the fates warning album, is that it reminds me of Queensryche, who I thoroughly despise. But at least it's not as bad as Queensryche or Dream Theater.

I really liked their first EP and The Warning when they came out. Haven't heard either in 20-odd years though.

They being Queensryche, obv.

when john justen gets his shot, he must pick Ulver, OK? Dan agrees.

Listening to that Fates Warning album makes me nostalgic for a time when metal was more commercially relevant - in particular that early '90s period when stuff like Queensryche, Kings X, and Rush could be commonly overheard blaring from college dorms.

Also stuff like Living Colour and Jane's Addiction.

doing fates warning now. i don't really have a lot to say--i'll make it through the whole thing but i really dislike this type of music. i would like to point out that the drummer sucks though--he is basically intentionally making the songs choppy and grooveless.

I agree that the drumming is not going for groove, but strongly disagree that that means it sucks...

yeah i did not mean to imply a direct relationship there necessarily--basically dude is just in the wrong band.

I recently rechecked my old copy of Parallels and I loved Mark Zonder's drumstyle. Very neatly executed, complex, but not as overblown as Mike portnoy.

Trying to cut down on my needless downloading so I am skipping to Fates Warning.

Parallels - Nicklas Bendtner, how others see him. Ridiculously ambitious considering that reality suggests (t)he(y) are actually rubbish.

did you listen to the mastodon?

Nah. It's not on spotify and like I said, trying not to just download musics. Will maybe listen to one of the two records they do have on spotify but considering i am catching up as it is, it doesn't seem like a big deal.

Srs this sounds like it should be the soundtrack to a fucking awful 80s cartoon epic. You are intentionally putting shit albums in the listening club to see if we can tell the different, right?

soundtrack to a fucking awful 80s cartoon epic

one day i'd like to use this to describe something i actually enjoyed.

That mastodon is very different to what came later, you cant compare them.

uh be nice now

oh and i didnt pick these 3, glenn did!

and i would prefer it if a mod made it clear on the thread title that i did not pick Him & cradle of filth! lol