2011 albums

[ABQShredHead]

BCC 2
Joe Bonamassa - Dust Bowl

 

[Postulate]

Probably because you look at it as "that Arabic stuff" or something. Any style generally sounds like it's all the same to a person who's heard only a little bit of it or doesn't have a proper understanding of it.

You'd be surprised at the amount of people who'll tell you that they think all metal sounds the same.

But it actually does, and I've been listening to it for a decade. Metal is genuinely awful.

 

[Detective Clarence Beauregard]

Do you feel that way about metal bands playing in E-minor, though? (Probably).

If you're talking about stuff like Metallica, absolutely. But for other bands, like Symphony X or Opeth, I can tolerate it a bit more because it's more varied and the songs rarely stay in the same key throughout.

Example: Communion and the Oracle starts in Em, goes through a shitload of key changes, then reverts back to Em for the outro. But just when you think the song's going to end in Em, it briefly changes to yet another key. Love it.

Probably because you look at it as "that Arabic stuff" or something. Any style generally sounds like it's all the same to a person who's heard only a little bit of it or doesn't have a proper understanding of it.

It just doesn't have a lot of feeling or emotion to me. The Arabic tonalities sound bad ass and work very well in heavy stuff (in my opinion), but not so well in others. I'm all for experimenting with tonalities, but when a band mainly uses one tonality it gets really old. It doesn't matter specifically what the tonality is.

For example, a lot of the music I wrote several years ago was mostly in natural minor; rarely did it stray into other tonalities. As I've matured as a songwriter and broadened my horizons, I've realized that natural minor all the time (or any tonality all the time) is boring. It's a one-trick pony. Just because a band plays in [insert tonality here] really well doesn't mean they should always play in that tonality.

 

[The Stormbringer]

Prog bands playing in oriental-sounding scales has become one of the clichés of that genre to me. Unlike natural minor or pentatonic, it's a rather special sounding tonality to our western ears and thus we get oversaturated with it easily, I think.

 

[Wander]

Stupid gimmick to base your sound on something like that imo. I avoid bands that sound samey throughout their discography for a reason.

 

[Sauna]

It just doesn't have a lot of feeling or emotion to me. The Arabic tonalities sound bad ass and work very well in heavy stuff (in my opinion), but not so well in others.

Of course it works in other stuff. Middle-Eastern folk music was around before the electric guitar, you know. What a weird opinion that one is.

Stupid gimmick to base your sound on something like that imo. I avoid bands that sound samey throughout their discography for a reason.

Sounding Middle-Eastern doesn't mean sounding samey all the time. If it's a gimmick, then so is everything else.

Prog bands playing in oriental-sounding scales has become one of the clichés of that genre to me. Unlike natural minor or pentatonic, it's a rather special sounding tonality to our western ears and thus we get oversaturated with it easily, I think.

Yes.

Edit: Opening a new page with a post that's completely off-topic is awesome, by the way.

 

[Marwen]

Prog bands playing in oriental-sounding scales has become one of the clichés of that genre to me. Unlike natural minor or pentatonic, it's a rather special sounding tonality to our western ears and thus we get oversaturated with it easily, I think.

It's not simply a matter of "sounding oriental" or "playing in E minor" etc. (as the Detective pointed out, Communion is written in that key and it's an amazing song). Anything that is done repetitively and with no real interesting musical substance quickly becomes lame. You wouldn't believe the amount of repetitive and lame crap withing the realm of Arabic music. It's not just your (occidental) ears. (I'm from the same country as Myrath btw)

Interestingly, as far as metal/prog music is concerned, I find westerners do oriental stuff better in terms of how they blend/incorporate it or how they use it to invoke a particular theme/setting. Probably because they don't insist so much on that one particular sound throughout their songs for the hell of it and when they do it, they do it very well. A couple examples:



[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjtPmYZwHso&feature=related[/ame]

not to mention Egypt by Symphony X and others.

The problem with native bands like Myrath is that they're trying too hard to sound like that just for the sake of being unique/exotic, trying to sell that image. (I'm watching a recent video clip by them and the vocalist guy is dressed like Prince of Persia, lol wtf)

Music has no nationality imo, at least progressive music.

 

[_Gentleman of_the Snow_]

A lot of bands set out to create something so over-the-top and as complex as possible, but 9 times out of 10 fail because it sounds very shallow. Like somebody else said, they just don't understand what being progressive is.
I can find more "complexity" and depth in Anathema's Are You There? than in a DT instrumental wank-fest.

For reference:



Or how about something more traditionally prog, like this:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGfIMOQ8CGc&feature=related[/ame]

The way the band feels and plays the odd time sigs, melodies, tones, etc... it's just in another league, imo. The use of true dynamics, and human-like execution... Damn, I love this album. lol.

 

[Durendal]

Same here. Like Dream Theater, their music just doesn't do anything to me no matter how flashy they try to sound. I also don't like how they try too hard to sound Arabic/Tunisian. Just another band with decent technical abilities but lack of understanding of what true progressiveness is all about, imo.

Are you trolling? You do know that Myrath is from Tunisia right?

 

[Marwen]

^

Read my other post.

 

[Wander]

A lot of bands set out to create something so over-the-top and as complex as possible, but 9 times out of 10 fail because it sounds very shallow. Like somebody else said, they just don't understand what being progressive is.
I can find more "complexity" and depth in Anathema's Are You There? than in a DT instrumental wank-fest.

For reference:

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

Or how about something more traditionally prog, like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGfIMOQ8CGc&feature=related

The way the band feels and plays the odd time sigs, melodies, tones, etc... it's just in another league, imo. The use of true dynamics, and human-like execution... Damn, I love this album. lol.

I approve of this post.

 

[Kenneth R.]

what a shit year.

my "10" if they could even be considered that... none of these albums would normally make a top list for me.

-Insomnium: One For Sorrow
-Turisas: Stand Up and Fight
-Steven Wilson: Grace for Drowning
-RHCP: I'm With You
-Samuel Yirga: Hagere (okay, just an EP, but this one deserves to be on a 'best' list)
-White Willow: Terminal Twilight
-Foo Fighters: Wasting Light
-Amaranthe: Amaranthe (guilty pleasure. bad, but catchy?)
-Ulver: War of the Roses
-Lunatic Soul: Impressions

Shockingly there was an Opeth album this year and it did not make the top 10 even with this dismal offering. Same @PoS, Arena, Amorphis, Dredg...

I GUESS I could give Moonsorrow a thumbs up considering my edits to their release. (Remove snowboot crunching ambience from most even-numbered tracks). Solid band.

Also, fuck Mastadon lately.

 

[Kenneth R.]

I approve of this post.

Are You There?, especially the Hindsight recording, is

 

[donKyle]

I'm curious about Moonsorrow. I heard one of their songs and I really liked it, but I can't remember the name. What would be a good album to start with? Or should I just not bother?

 

[J-Dubya 777]

Leprous' new cd Bilateral DOES kick ass.....those guys are great live, too!

 

[symphonyXjapan]

what a shit year.

my "10" if they could even be considered that... none of these albums would normally make a top list for me.

-Insomnium: One For Sorrow
-Turisas: Stand Up and Fight
-Steven Wilson: Grace for Drowning
-RHCP: I'm With You
-Samuel Yirga: Hagere (okay, just an EP, but this one deserves to be on a 'best' list)
-White Willow: Terminal Twilight
-Foo Fighters: Wasting Light
-Amaranthe: Amaranthe (guilty pleasure. bad, but catchy?)
-Ulver: War of the Roses
-Lunatic Soul: Impressions

Shockingly there was an Opeth album this year and it did not make the top 10 even with this dismal offering. Same @PoS, Arena, Amorphis, Dredg...

I GUESS I could give Moonsorrow a thumbs up considering my edits to their release. (Remove snowboot crunching ambience from most even-numbered tracks). Solid band.

Also, fuck Mastadon lately.

I could see why that Amaranthe album could be a guilty pleasure; however, to put it on your list over Opeth, PoS, and Amorphis is laughable. You may find the new albums of these bands you like lackluster, but to put a "guilty pleasure" band on the list over them is quite sad. If Amaranthe makes your list over those then maybe you shouldn't feel guilty about liking it? I know if I used the phrase "bad, but catchy" to describe an album it would not be in my top 10 list...

Oh, and I thought I remembered you liking the Cynthesis album but I guess I am remembering wrong. Were you disappointed in that one too?

 

[Wander]

Lol, I had to check that Amaranthe band. It sounds like the Abba of metal or something. Commercial metal sound done to perfection?

 

[Sauna]

I'm curious about Moonsorrow. I heard one of their songs and I really liked it, but I can't remember the name. What would be a good album to start with? Or should I just not bother?

Hävitetty is probably my favourite Moonsorrow album, but I would recommend starting with Verisäkeet, I think it might have just a bit more immediate appeal. Doesn't really matter though, they're both so good it's almost painful.

You shouldn't bother if you have a problem with long songs, though.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHYOoiAQSeU&feature=related[/ame]

 

[Kenneth R.]

Hävitetty is probably my favourite Moonsorrow album, but I would recommend starting with Verisäkeet, I think it might have just a bit more immediate appeal. Doesn't really matter though, they're both so good it's almost painful.

You shouldn't bother if you have a problem with long songs, though.

Agreed with these recommendations. Moonsorrow is great.

Lol, I had to check that Amaranthe band. It sounds like the Abba of metal or something. Commercial metal sound done to perfection?

Yeah.

I could see why that Amaranthe album could be a guilty pleasure; however, to put it on your list over Opeth, PoS, and Amorphis is laughable. You may find the new albums of these bands you like lackluster, but to put a "guilty pleasure" band on the list over them is quite sad. If Amaranthe makes your list over those then maybe you shouldn't feel guilty about liking it? I know if I used the phrase "bad, but catchy" to describe an album it would not be in my top 10 list...

Oh, and I thought I remembered you liking the Cynthesis album but I guess I am remembering wrong. Were you disappointed in that one too?

Oh, don't get butthurt. Opeth, PoS, and Amorphis disappointed. Those bands are capable of so much more that to put out a forgettable disc is inexcusable. Hopefully their next will be better. Unlike some people here, I don't blindly worship bands. Even my favorite bands have proven they are capable of lackluster releases and I'm not too insecure or afraid or whatever mechanism governs that sort of reaction to admit it and move on.

I did preface my "list" by saying that the year was terrible and I couldn't even call it a top 10. Why should I include a "brand name" band like Opeth, for example, only because of who they are? If their album didn't hit the radar hard enough then it doesn't deserve to stay there.

Re Cynthesis: Yes, I liked it. Erik is one of the coolest vocalists and most here know my love for the Tipton twins. It's a good album but it can't really stand up to a best-of list either. I don't know about the rest of you, but when I have to say best of, it's not just for the year, it's for all time. The criteria being "released this year, top 10 of which could compete with the top 10 of other years". 2011 fell on its face

 

[Detective Clarence Beauregard]

Hävitetty is probably my favourite Moonsorrow album, but I would recommend starting with Verisäkeet, I think it might have just a bit more immediate appeal. Doesn't really matter though, they're both so good it's almost painful.

You shouldn't bother if you have a problem with long songs, though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHYOoiAQSeU&feature=related

Wow. Aside from whatever the hell vocal style that is (ugh), that is the most epic thing I've heard in a long time. The music is amazing, and reminds me much of older Opeth, which I love dearly.