Metal

[Handsome B Wonderful 331]

lol, my bad. An old school wikipedia entry had Klausenitzer down for Omnivium instead of Thesseling. All this time I thought it was the wrong person. That'll teach me to not go to Encyclopedia Metallum.

Analog, what do you think of the last 3 Pestilence albums? I liked them all, but I can see why people don't. Resurrection Macabre was pretty basic brutal death metal. I liked Doctrine a lot more, and Obsideo also has its moments.

[DiO 4730]

this

and this

[Handsome B Wonderful 331]

lol, I was going to post that Beyond Creation video the other day in the listening topic.

I'm trying to put together a playlist of Sci-fi metal for a friend, and I need some suggestions, as it's not a hugely populated genre. Well, it's not even really a genre.

Here are a few songs I've chosen of the top of my head so far.

Nocturnus - Lake Of Fire

Pestilence - Mind Reflections

Obscura - Noospheres

Arcturus - Demon Painter

[TheAnalogKid2112 163]

Analog, what do you think of the last 3 Pestilence albums? I liked them all, but I can see why people don't. [/size]Resurrection Macabre was pretty basic brutal death metal. I liked Doctrine a lot more, and Obsideo also has its moments.

Dude, call me a noob but I've only listened to Spheres. What would you suggest?

Beyond Creation fucking RULES!!! I've been hooked on their record for some time now. Love that dudes bass tone. He's a killer.

Is only really consider that Nocturnus record the only thing I've ever thought of as SciFi metal. I can definitely see the Obscura thing now that you mention it. I'll ponder that for a bit.

Heard the new Defeated Sanity, Handsome? Most brutal thing that's come out in as long as I can remember. Just sheer heavy brutality. Punishing bass, too.

[Handsome B Wonderful 331]

Analog, what do you think of the last 3 Pestilence albums? I liked them all, but I can see why people don't. [/size]Resurrection Macabre was pretty basic brutal death metal. I liked Doctrine a lot more, and Obsideo also has its moments.

Dude, call me a noob but I've only listened to Spheres. What would you suggest?

Well, their first 3 albums are all classics imo. Spheres was a big risk for them, and it didn't pay off at the time.

Their first album, "Malleus Maleficarum", is one of my favourite thrash albums of all time. I'm a big fan of their original vocalist, Martin Van Drunen, although I think Pat Mameli did a great job replacing him.

One of my favourite songs on the album, Parricide

With their second album, "Consuming Impulse", they changed things up a bit, and moved to a straight up death metal style. Van Drunen left the band after this album, and guitarist Patrick Mameli took up vocal duties. Being squashed between two more famous albums, I think people forget about it sometimes, but I stand by its quality.

Chronic Infection

Their 3rd album, Testimony Of The Ancients, is one of my favourite death metal albums, and is mostly agreed upon as Pestilence's best. By this stage, they began experimenting with keyboards and atmospheric interludes. They hired Tony Choy to play bass on this one. I find every song to be catchy on this one, and highly recommend listening to the album as a whole. It really makes you feel like you are following the story of some guy going mad in the jungle.

Land Of Tears

https://www.youtube....h?v=Es8Rt3kShGo

Prophetic Revelations

After "Spheres", the band split up (Marco Foddis would never return due to a falling out with Mameli). Mameli reunited with Tony Choy in 2008, and "Resurrection Macabre" was released in 2009. Another change in style, RM had more in common with today's Brutal Tech death than old school Pestilence, which put a lot of fans off. Patrick Uterwijk rejoined the band shortly after the album was recorded. I think it's a decent album.

Ressurection Macabre

Not long after, Choy and drummer Peter Wildoer left the band, and Jeroen Paul Thesseling was hired again along with Yuma Van Eekelen. This line-up recorded "Doctrine". I find Mameli's vocals on this album to be a mixed bag. The guitars benefit from having both Pats working together again.

Doctrine

https://www.youtube....h?v=kOBjKTQSlTs

Thesseling and Eekelen then left the band. George Maier replaced Thesseling, and Aussie legend David Haley replaced Eekelen on drums. In 2013, "Obsideo" was released. Imo, it's Pestilence's best material in a long time. Mameli's vocals are much improved, Maier does a great job replacing Thesseling. The album adds some Sci-fi elements again, but they are more tasteful than on Spheres.

Displaced

[TheAnalogKid2112 163]

More SciFi death metal bands: Hypocrisy, Deeds of Flesh, Neuraxis, the Faceless

Blotted Science if you're ok with it being instrumental.

Psycroptic - "Symbols of Failure"

Origin.. Decrepit Birth...

[Handsome B Wonderful 331]

All good bands. Thanks

Also, Analog, I highly recommend Direwolf if you haven't heard of them. Tech Blackened Prog Death from the US

I'm looking forward to the new Anubis Gate album next month. I prefer them as a prog band. They sounded like too many other power metal bands with their old singer.

[TheAnalogKid2112 163]

All good bands. Thanks

Also, Analog, I highly recommend Direwolf if you haven't heard of them.

I'm looking forward to the new Anubis Gate album next month. I prefer them as a prog band. They sounded like too many other power metal bands with their old singer.

Edit: Just came across this 8-bit version of Judas Priest's 'Painkiller' album. So awesome.

Never heard of Direwolf or Anubis Gate. I'll check em out.

Dude, if you haven't found 8BitCore on YouTube yet, DO IT! The Spawn of Possession and Necrophagist in 8 Bit are fucking epic!

[Panzerbear171 13]

this

and this

Beyond Creation is fantastic.

You should check these out if you haven't:

[GunSmith 2452]

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

[Handsome B Wonderful 331]

Christian Muenzner 2nd solo album is now mixed and mastered. The Talisman

[/url]

I really like the sound of this

[Panzerbear171 13]

Check these guys out. I'm not usually much of a black metal fan, but these guys are exceptional.

[TheAnalogKid2112 163]

Pretty sure Opeth is everything metal should ever be. Fucking perfect band. Brutally heavy, technical, powerful, tasteful, beautiful, and emotional. All perfectly balanced.

Dominating my stereo the past 3 months.

New record "Pale Communion" coming June 17. Too stoked for it. Everything I've read makes it sound like an amazing record.

[Panzerbear171 13]

Pretty sure Opeth is everything metal should ever be. Fucking perfect band. Brutally heavy, technical, powerful, tasteful, beautiful, and emotional. All perfectly balanced.

Dominating my stereo the past 3 months.

New record "Pale Communion" coming June 17. Too stoked for it. Everything I've read makes it sound like an amazing record.

They spent 10 years recording the same album. I really don't think their musicianship is all that technical, either. Very layered and complex stuff, but musically they aren't really all that different from the Gothenburg death metal bands from the mid-90s aside from that aspect. If you want technicality, Opeth really isn't the band for that sort of thing.

I've always thought of Opeth as the Metallica of the 90s and 2000s. Appropriately, it seems like they're starting to trend towards a more marketable sound.

[TheAnalogKid2112 163]

I disagree. I think their music is incredibly complex, in a different way then most bands. They have a seamless flow through different moods and intensities in their tunes, very dynamic. I think their riffs are technical in a very subdued way, tasteful. Perhaps complex would be a more appropriate word than technical. While it is mostly a chord-driven band, they're often complemented by great scales and intricate patterns in between the chunky chords. Mikhael's riffs have this incredible force behind them, capable of moving buildings if they were physical objects. Haha.

You could say its a more commercial sound, I view it as maturing as an artist. The new records are even better than the old (though I haven't heard Heritage, Watershed is a beautiful and heavy fucking masterpiece) because there are certainly new styles constantly added to the compositions.

To compare with Metallica is ricidulous. Metallica is soulless, immature dad rock. Mikhael puts so much feeling into his solos and especially his vocals. Examples: Burden, Face of Melinda, Benighted, and Coil just off the top of my head. To hear a guitar lead that will bring a tear to your eye in the right mood, listen to Godhead's Lament. Until it gets heavy as fuck.

Idk man, all a matter of opinion, but there's a serious depth to this band I was blind to for years.

[Panzerbear171 13]

I disagree. I think their music is incredibly complex, in a different way then most bands. They have a seamless flow through different moods and intensities in their tunes, very dynamic. I think their riffs are technical in a very subdued way, tasteful. Perhaps complex would be a more appropriate word than technical. While it is mostly a chord-driven band, they're often complemented by great scales and intricate patterns in between the chunky chords. Mikhael's riffs have this incredible force behind them, capable of moving buildings if they were physical objects. Haha.

You could say its a more commercial sound, I view it as maturing as an artist. The new records are even better than the old (though I haven't heard Heritage, Watershed is a beautiful and heavy fucking masterpiece) because there are certainly new styles constantly added to the compositions.

To compare with Metallica is ricidulous. Metallica is soulless, immature dad rock. Mikhael puts so much feeling into his solos and especially his vocals. Examples: Burden, Face of Melinda, Benighted, and Coil just off the top of my head. To hear a guitar lead that will bring a tear to your eye in the right mood, listen to Godhead's Lament. Until it gets heavy as fuck.

Idk man, all a matter of opinion, but there's a serious depth to this band I was blind to for years.

Opeth is as complex as any band for sure, but they're gradually shedding the elements that made them so unique.

The Metallica comparison is accurate in many ways. Metallica had a run of about 10 years where they were releasing a brand of heavy metal that no one had ever really heard up to that point. Epic songs (most of them well over 6 minutes) that mixed the heaviest brand of metal with beautiful melodies and clean passages. So there, you have the first traces of that heavy/beautiful dynamic that Opeth has used extensively since the beginning. Well, now they're purging their music of practically any and all elements of heavy metal and more or less becoming a rock band. Only difference at this point is that their brand of rock is simply prog rock, and there's nothing exceptional about it. Prog rock was mastered in the 70s and 80s by bands with significantly more talent, and Akerfeldt is essentially kicking the dead horse. Of course, the last album was the band's most commercially successful album to date, so it all works out fine for the band.

Call it whatever you want, but when a band gradually eliminates heaviness, and becomes increasingly melodic, that signifies a band that's about ready to sell out. I personally don't really care, I'll always have that run from Orchid through Watershed to listen to. Their new music is just kind of "eh" inducing, and according to Akerfeldt the next album is set to be more melodic than anything they've done before. I'm sure they'll pass it off as some kind of artistic movement on their behalf, but in reality you just have to connect the dots. Most good art isn't really that popular. It gets a lot of critical praise, it's very complex, and it isn't intended to sell to the masses. Opeth wants to sell a lot of albums IMO, and you can hear it in their new sound.

But don't get the impression I don't love Opeth, because they're just a really, really great band. I think they should have experimented by addition to their music, not by subtraction. I honestly can't see them ever releasing an album as good as BWP/SL/GR/Watershed ever again at the rate that their music is going, in addition to the fact that Akerfeldt has said he's done with the death metal thing. To me, that just means that they've killed their signature sound to create something that honestly isn't that unique at all. You'd have to listen to Heritage to know what I'm talking about.

[TheAnalogKid2112 163]

Valid points. I am relatively new to Opeth anyway, having only heard Watershed, Damnation and Ghost Reveries one or two times each so far and nothing before Still Life.. Only having had the time to really get to know Still Life, Blackwater Park and Deliverance..So it may be initial excitement getting me defensive.

At least we can agree how great they are (or were?)

[Panzerbear171 13]

Valid points. I am relatively new to Opeth anyway, having only heard Watershed, Damnation and Ghost Reveries one or two times each so far and nothing before Still Life.. Only having had the time to really get to know Still Life, Blackwater Park and Deliverance..So it may be initial excitement getting me defensive.

At least we can agree how great they are (or were?)

Yeah, they're a great band man. Really great. I definitely recommend their entire body of work, even Heritage is not that bad. I bash it because I can see what they're trying to do, and I've heard that kind of music before by bands that just do it much better than they do.

We'll see about the next one, and I'm a little optimistic, but still very skeptical. They said it was going to have elements of Orchid (I'm guessing some black metal type of atmosphere) and Watershed, but sans the death growls. It could be good, but I'm always cautious about bands that say that they want their next album to be more "melodic".

[TheAnalogKid2112 163]

I have high expectations. I'll sit through an album of 70's prog ripoffs for even one emotive Akerfeldt guitar solo. Martin never disappoints either.

Fuck. Just about 15 days until 3 nights of Primus here in Vegas with Tim Alexander back on the kit. My 12th-15th Primus shows they shall be, and at a brand new venue, the Brooklyn Bowl. Too stoked!!!

[DiO 4730]

stuff about opeth

not selling out.

Akerfeldt is doing what he wants. not what his fans expect of them. want old opeth, listen to old opeth. Devin Townsend gets the same shit for his newer stuff.

[TheAnalogKid2112 163]

stuff about opeth

not selling out.

Akerfeldt is doing what he wants. not what his fans expect of them. want old opeth, listen to old opeth. Devin Townsend gets the same shit for his newer stuff.

110% with you, pal.

Speaking of Devin, while I've always had respect for him as a musician, I'm just recently starting to dig his music. Any suggestions on his best records? There are so many to choose from,

[Panzerbear171 13]

Stuff about not selling out.

Never said they were selling out, but rather that I suspect that they may be attempting to.

On a more serious note, if Opeth wasn't trying to sell out, they would have made a side project to take advantage of these ambitions the same way that Devin Townshend did, and they would have progressed their sound through addition rather than subtraction. Their newest material has blatantly been softened to become more radio friendly. I mean, the next thing you know they'll be stripped down musicially. I think bands have the right to become more commercially, but they shouldn't pass it off as some sort of stroke of artistic maturity as some of their die-hard fanboys seem to actually believe.

[DiO 4730]

ya but people said the same thing about DtP with the softening compared to strapping.

Devin was just over the aggression he felt at the time, and the band broke up. He did his own thing.

Maybe you got a point of the "side project" thing but I cant blame Opeth for not being arsed for coming up with a new band.

On a side note Mikael did Do a side thing with Steve WIlson.

[Panzerbear171 13]

Storm Corrosion is sick.

Anyone else into deathcore? I think it's kind of considered cool to make fun of it, kind of like it is/was cool to make fun of nu metal. I like a few bands though, and I can't say I've ever heard nu metal display the technical proficiency that some of these bands display.

[TheAnalogKid2112 163]

I was just telling my friend yesterday that Heritage shouldn't have been released as an Opeth album. Phenomenal record, really, but it's in hardly any way Opeth.

Deathcore fucking sucks. It's a plague and has ruined any chance for me to see a solid opening band for the groups I like, and had especially ruined metal festivals.