2013 - new and upcoming albums

i could never get into rhapsody. i have friends who like them, but their music just doesn't seem exciting at all. i'm glad you like them, and get that vibe from them, because that's what music you like should do for you.
 
Some of my favorite metal releases of the year:













Most anticipated album? Obviously Subterranean Masquerade - In Pastille Colors.
 
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Fates Warning's new album is pretty good. It will probably take some time for me to really get into it. It's kinda like Disconnected.
 
I've got a lot of spinnings of the new FW but the only track I like is the last one(14 minutes long),seems to me it lacks energy and the other songs looks all the same
 
Even better than "Perfect simmetry" and "A pleasant shade of grey "? I don't think so,anyway the new Subsignal's "Paraiso " is out ,have a listen of some track on youtube
 
Thinking of FW, I re-discovered last year's OSI album. It's rather good.

Also, there's this:
 
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Wow, no. I like some of it, but I have to say this is their worst album since... well, since Night On Brocken. No innovation, nothing pushing any sort of boundaries. I've heard this all before, but done better. Both by these guys and by other bands. I mean, could they have ripped Opeth off any harder on that intro part of "Into the Black"? Very bad decision by Matheos to ditch the keyboards and electronic influences. That made modern FW special. A lot of this music just ends up sounding like stuff that wasn't good enough to make it onto the Arch/Matheos album. His heavy riffs are all very samey and that's never been as exposed as it is here. Alder is one of my all-time faves, but his melodies are nowhere near as creative and dynamic as what Arch did so some of this does come off a bit more boring. Also, I like guitar solos, but none of the solos here can even hold a candle to anything from when Aresti was in the band in the 80s-90s. Just disappointing on every level. Not even gonna get into the double bass pedal abuse... I want Zonder back RIGHT NOW!

FWX is a classic, man. Half filler? Sure, it had "Simple Human", but there was also "Left Here", "River Wide Ocean Deep", etc. ...come on. Those were some fresh ideas, forward thinking music. I haven't been this disappointed in an album since Paradise Lost! I can't believe this! Ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!
 
Matheos isn't about riffs, he's about songwriting and arrangements. Always has been. He basically invented the prog metal rhythm guitar that's ubiquitous now, but he uses it as a compositional tool. Think of the rhythm guitar as part of the song and not as "riffing" and his playing makes much more sense, IMO, especially when you also listen to the bass and drums (I agree that Zonder's better, but Mark Zonder is Mark Zonder, what are you going to do...)

As far as being "forward-thinking," what do you think about Lighthouse and And Yet It Moves, for example? Both are pretty unconventional. Though I'm not as impressed with breaking conventions alone as I used to be...
 
Thinking of FW, I re-discovered last year's OSI album. It's rather good.
OSI is dead to me. Their second album was the only one I really liked.
Wow, no. I like some of it, but I have to say this is their worst album since... well, since Night On Brocken. No innovation, nothing pushing any sort of boundaries. I've heard this all before, but done better. Both by these guys and by other bands. I mean, could they have ripped Opeth off any harder on that intro part of "Into the Black"? Very bad decision by Matheos to ditch the keyboards and electronic influences. That made modern FW special. A lot of this music just ends up sounding like stuff that wasn't good enough to make it onto the Arch/Matheos album. His heavy riffs are all very samey and that's never been as exposed as it is here. Alder is one of my all-time faves, but his melodies are nowhere near as creative and dynamic as what Arch did so some of this does come off a bit more boring. Also, I like guitar solos, but none of the solos here can even hold a candle to anything from when Aresti was in the band in the 80s-90s. Just disappointing on every level. Not even gonna get into the double bass pedal abuse... I want Zonder back RIGHT NOW!

FWX is a classic, man. Half filler? Sure, it had "Simple Human", but there was also "Left Here", "River Wide Ocean Deep", etc. ...come on. Those were some fresh ideas, forward thinking music. I haven't been this disappointed in an album since Paradise Lost! I can't believe this! Ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!
This, this this and so much more. In every way I agree.
Matheos isn't about riffs, he's about songwriting and arrangements. Always has been. He basically invented the prog metal rhythm guitar that's ubiquitous now, but he uses it as a compositional tool. Think of the rhythm guitar as part of the song and not as "riffing" and his playing makes much more sense, IMO, especially when you also listen to the bass and drums (I agree that Zonder's better, but Mark Zonder is Mark Zonder, what are you going to do...)

As far as being "forward-thinking," what do you think about Lighthouse and And Yet It Moves, for example? Both are pretty unconventional. Though I'm not as impressed with breaking conventions alone as I used to be...
For being an arrangement, guy, he certainly failed this time. Every song is formulaic. Even the "epic" "And Yet It Moves" seemed like two songs in one track with silence between. Ripped off Opeth? Yes, but with nowhere near the execution Opeth could pull off. The rhythms are boring and rehash, the lyrical content is unchallenging and hardly emotional, doesn't have any bite to it. Not creative, just a boring, generic prog album. I think the new FW is their worst effort to date.

If I were to cite arrangement kudos for FW, I'd pick "River Wide Ocean Deep", "APSOG", and tracks off Disconnected & Parallels. What we have on the new disc reminds me of Redemption or Arch/Matheos, neither of which held any interest for me. Hell, the first Redemption album, without Alder, was the best thing that band ever did. And I like Alder. He can do great stuff. Whoever wrote the new FW though... they've been taking cues from Dream Theater and radio metal and that's a terrible loss.
 
OSI is dead to me. Their second album was the only one I really liked.

This, this this and so much more. In every way I agree.

For being an arrangement, guy, he certainly failed this time. Every song is formulaic. Even the "epic" "And Yet It Moves" seemed like two songs in one track with silence between. Ripped off Opeth? Yes, but with nowhere near the execution Opeth could pull off. The rhythms are boring and rehash, the lyrical content is unchallenging and hardly emotional, doesn't have any bite to it. Not creative, just a boring, generic prog album. I think the new FW is their worst effort to date.

If I were to cite arrangement kudos for FW, I'd pick "River Wide Ocean Deep", "APSOG", and tracks off Disconnected & Parallels. What we have on the new disc reminds me of Redemption or Arch/Matheos, neither of which held any interest for me. Hell, the first Redemption album, without Alder, was the best thing that band ever did. And I like Alder. He can do great stuff. Whoever wrote the new FW though... they've been taking cues from Dream Theater and radio metal and that's a terrible loss.

So, I don't care what people think of the album, since obviously I'm going to listen to it anyway, but a couple things about this are pretty bullshit.

First, the "radio metal complaint" is nonsense, because FWX was the closest to "radio metal" that FW ever did – the album was influenced by Deftones, which was a major influence on Ray Alder at the time, and he admitted as much, and also shows some Tool influences. So I don't know what you're talking about if you think this is "radio metal" in a way FWX isn't – either you don't have anything against "radio metal" per se since you like FWX, which is full of it, or your definition of "radio metal" just doesn't make any sense.

Second, And Yet It Moves is pretty coherent. The metal riffs purposefully parallel the acoustic segment at the beginning, and those riffs are developed pretty well in the beginning and then continually reprised throughout the song. Finally, the ending vocal melody is hinted at throughout the entire track before finally being "dropped." The remainder of the song has the tone of a journey with a melancholy end. And the rhythm guitar is awesome.
 
New and "never heard before" kind of music is good and essential, otherwise we'd end up hearing the same shit everywhere. This said, I also find myself enjoying some music that has nothing "new" to offer. It may have some already used elements, sounds, arrangements etc. but still it can be very good. Aah music... :worship:
 
Thought I'd drop this here as I did a quick search and was surprised to see no one mention this 2013 release:

 
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