Albums of 2011

GottlichKrieger said:
With all that said i cant wait for the new Opeth cd.
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Is Opeth still releasing an album this year? I sort of thought they would be distracted with Mikeal dealing with the release of "Storm Corrosion"

Also, I'm sort of looking forward to the new Morne. As of right now my most anticipated album is Mammal by ALTAR OF PLAGUES!!!
 
I'm one of the apparently few people who also misses Johan's vocals in Arch Enemy. I don't dislike Angela's vocals but they don't appeal to me as much. And I agree that not every AE cd is exactly the same, I too hear differences between them but I think there's still room for some more diversity. But honestly, if AE are happy with what they do and they feel like they're being creative then more power to 'em. I certainly wouldn't want a band to force themselves out of the box and doing something they don't feel right about, just for the sake of it.

Sorry to hear that the production on the Ribspreader might be lacking.....but I still want it :)
 
Novembers Paul said:
You know... I've been a Ribspreader fan since Bolted to the Cross, and this new release really bothered me and it took a couple listens to put my finger on it. The production is lacking. Rogga is one of my favorite DM vocalists and this production uses tons of reverb, and buried the vocals, so the quality of his vocal suffers. Damn, I wish Swano had mixed this.
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I feel the same way about the vocals, but i'm thoroughly enjoying the album nonetheless. It is a little disappointing in the fact that I think it could of contended as their best release if the vocals were higher in the mix. Congregating the Sick remains my favorite from them. The production felt a little choppy in some parts, but the vocals were nothing short of a top 10 example of sick death metal vox.


NvmbrsDoom5 said:
I'm definitely looking forward to the new Ribspreader. They don't need to do anything "new", what they already do is just fine with me.
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Agreed, I just threw that in there because i'm tired of people telling me how derivative Rogga's material is. Yeah, its derivative, but yes its also great. This guy puts out stuff as if the early 90's in Sweden was inscribed his bible...and I love 'em for that. I swear so many metal heads are becoming such jaded hipsters, its nothing short of infuriating at times XD.
 
I don't really get the derivative thing, I mean Ribspreader aren't trying to break new ground but so what? I always say that basically there's three kinds of music out there - good, bad, and indifferent, and it's all down to personal taste and opinion when it comes to deciding who fits which of the three categories. If someone is doing "basic" death metal but they write good songs, good hooks, and have a good sound, then I like it. At the same time I've heard plenty of music that is definitely unique, original, and different, but if the sound and the songwriting doesn't catch me, then it's basically not worth shit to me. Like I'd mentioned on the last podcast, Anathema have very clearly shown their influences (i.e. Floyd, Radiohead, etc.) and aren't what I'd call "totally original" but they're reaaaaaally fucking good at it, and they write songs that are well written and stick with me.

Yeah, the metal scene is really driving me nuts as of late. On one hand you've got the people who are too snobby and seem to think everything out there is boring and derivative unless it's some kind of fucked up shoegazer/jazz/death/doom/hardcore hybrid..... or you've got the legion of the Jean-Vest-Elite-Corps who only like stuff that was either recorded over 20 years ago or SOUNDS like it was, and have rules like "you can only like the first two albums of any band" and "once a band starts to get popular then they are gay and no longer kvlt" and bullshit like that. Obviously these people don't apply to EVERYONE in the metal scene, but lately those two factions seem to be prevailing, at least here in the States, heh.

And of course, Novembers Doom falls into this grey area where we're despised by both sides, so we're fucked as per usual, lol. Oh well, my cd doesn't have to be voted number one of the year in some 'zine for me to know it's fucking good.
 
Thankfully (from what I've witnessed at least) these people are typically found on the internet and don't fester all that much within the actual shows / shops that frequent metal heads. Unfortunately, being on the staff for UM I am reading said commentary far too often. Hell I got hate mail calling me a "...fucking trend humper." for giving the most recent Agalloch release a positive review. It really seems to me that a community that thrived on a common passion for music is turning to the direction of a bunch of people 'liking' and 'disliking' certain bands for all the wrong reasons, as if everyones "street cred" is based on their personal tastes. This of course treads the same terrain as those that purely follow trends, which is simply ironic for many of these people a la the juggalo phenomenon.

And yeah, Novembers Doom either falls under a sell out Opeth wanabe act, or a group of guys in that are simply not true enough to their metal roots for me, I can't decide which. :p
 
I dont understand why so many idiots say that Nd rips off Opeth. Ok i get the fact that there both death metal bands that have alot of mood swings during the course of a song but they sound nothing alike. Is there any ND song that sound remotely like an Opeth song? Ah well...
 
Too be fair.....yes there are some parts of songs here and there that sound Opeth-ish, I admit it. But it was really a case of coincidence rather than inspiration or influence. When you share alot of the same influences, inevitably there's gonna be moments where the similarities are unavoidable. But at the same time, I think the amount of differences between the two bands is far far greater than the similarities. Anyhow we've discussed this to death before so I won't ramble on, suffice to say my stance remains the same as before....to say we're similar in ways is no insult to us whatsoever. But to say we're a rip-off/wannabe version of them is just utterly false. Now if someone wants to accuse me of taking some strong influence from Pink Floyd or Trouble, well I'll cop to that one glady, 'cause it's true! lol

Funny that you'd get slagged off for giving Agalloch a good review, Phleggy, everywhere I turned people were praising it to high hell, seemed like you were in the majority rather than the minority. Now, give the new ND cd a sterling review and watch how much the shit flies your way, haha.

Oh and I don't really give a shit what the metal elite think about ND or the level of our metal-ness or whatever you call it, I'm too old for that shit, lol. A great majority of them don't have the metal background and roots that guys like Paul and myself have anyhow. How many of them saw Metallica on the "Ride The Lightning" tour when they were only 12 years old? Or got sent home from a junior high school party in 1985 for bringing W.A.S.P "Fuck Like A Beast" 12" single and Possessed "Seven Churches" to play for the class? Or had subscriptions to magazines like Creem, Hit Parader, Circus and others by the time they were 10? Or was on Channel 2 news for almost getting kicked out of school for having too long hair and dressing too metal??!! (LOL don't look for it on YouTube, it's not there....yet) Man I'm lucky I had great parents who supported me with this shit, because I was a weird kid!!!

Just because us guys in ND are comfortable with playing songs like "Twilight Innocence" and don't walk around in jean vests or shaved heads and huge beards and faded Disfear t-shirts doesn't mean we aren't fucking Metal, I'll tell you this. hehe
 
NvmbrsDoom5 said:
Now, give the new ND cd a sterling review and watch how much the shit flies your way, haha.
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I don't know man, I predict indifference upon another positive review for you guys. For some reason you guys have always been a really hard sell for me(in fact, pretty much any band Paul sings for has been...hmmmm..)and its not for lack of musical quality.

For example I will find myself suggesting say, 10 bands to a friend, including Novembers Doom, a week later I ask what they felt about the different bands. They list off 9 acts saying how they loved them for this reason and that reason but fail to mention ND. I ask how they felt about you guys and get a "Oh crap I forgot to check them out!". Needless to say a couple more months of periodic probings asking how they feel about you guys yield similar results. Eventually the person just refuses to check out Novembers Doom on principle for being suggested them too many times :p.

That has essentially been my experience trying to spread the word on Novembers Doom, These Are They and Subterranean Masquerade. The later suggesting to me that it has to do with some sort of curse Paul has acquired.
 
PhlegethonVeins said:
That has essentially been my experience trying to spread the word on Novembers Doom, These Are They and Subterranean Masquerade. The later suggesting to me that it has to do with some sort of curse Paul has acquired.
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Haha! Well, hopefully my inclusion on Deconstruction will break this curse. BUT, I think I can seriously answer the reasons...

Subterranean Masquerade is very obscure, and even the open minded I know had a hard time getting into this. It has it's fans, but a very small niche at best. Plus, I had NOTHING to do with this creatively. I flew to Utah, recorded what I was told, and left.

These Are They... Virtually unknown, with an odd name for a death metal band, which is what we wanted. I still stand by Disposing of Betrayers, If you put that up against ANY death metal CD in in last decade, it can easily stand next to any of them, and it outshines most of them. Sort of tough to say since I'm in the band, but my part aside, the music on this CD KILLS. All hook, and impossible not to move your head. I think it's a slow grow.

The biggest obstacle for Novembers Doom is the band name. Back in 1989, it was original and sounded cool. Now, in 2011, having the word "Doom" in our name has become a HUGE hinderance. People get a preconceived notion on what we're going to sound like because of that, some don't give it a chance. This is the thing we need to overcome. If people give it a chance, I think we would win them over.
 
People REALLY hate our name. And I just don't understand it. I'm not saying it's a great name or a name I'd choose now given the chance.....but considering how fucking horrible a good majority of band names are these days, and the fact that almost anything legitimately cool-sounding has already been taken, I just don't understand all the negativity towards the name. And seriously, not to sound whiny but I never understand the level of criticism leveled at us for such ridiculous shit, like the missing apostrophe, lol. I mean ok I get it, it's not grammatically correct, but soooo whaaaaaaaaaaat??? When did metal bands suddenly become judged for proper grammar, especially in today's age of almost noone knowing how to spell anymore? Could you imagine if 75% of the reviews of "Killing Is My Business" or "Rust In Peace" were tainted by critic's complaints that Megadeth are missing that additional letter A in "deth"??? LOFL Seriously. It's one thing to notice the missing apostrophe in our name but the amount of shit people have given us for it over the years is a bit overboard, I'm sorry.

I agree with Paul, I think alot more people out there would like ND if they gave it a chance to win them over. But as Phleggy said, if you can't even get people to give it that chance in the first place, then it's a bit hopeless. We've had this negative stigma attached to us since......well since before I even joined the damn band!! And it's just one of those things.
I liken us to Anthony Michael Hall.......he grew up, became a good dramatic actor, got in shape, tried to be taken as a serious, good-looking male leading role actor....
But most of the population will always look at him and say, "No, he's the little twerpy nerd from the John Hughes movies." No matter how much he's changed, evolved, improved, etc., he's never going to be viewed in a different light than that first impression people got of him from those old films when he was a scrawny geek. There's that other 10% of the population who DO give him credit for where he's at now, and acknowledge him for his current talents and status, and it's just enough to keep him active and treading water as a "serious actor". But he can never outrun the stigma and preconceived notions that most people have about him, where someone will say, "Hey you should check out this amazing drama I saw, starring Anthony Michael Hall", and the other person will think, "Eh, ok, not sure how interested I'd be, or how seriously I can take, a film starring the geek from Weird Science and Breakfast Club."

This is probably the most goofy analogy I have ever come up with, but by god, it's pretty goddamned accurate if you really think about it, lol.
 
Sorry to keep rambling on but just wanted to add this....

My wife just came in and read what I'd just posted and added her own analogy of the band name thing, which I think is pretty interesting.

Her take on it, is that alot of people's mindset about ND is that the name sounds like we're "trying too hard", that putting November and Doom together just comes off like it's a cheesy way of conveying this dark mood, whereas just being called one or the other is a bit more acceptable, hence the reason you don't see people bitching about the band "Novembre" in the same way that people nitpick our name. She said that the name just comes off as corny and elicits that preconception that people tend to do towards bands before hearing them.

She also wants it to be known that this is not reflective of what SHE thinks of the band or the name, lol, merely that it's her take on what she thinks other people think about it, based on things people have said to her about ND or just knowing how alot of people these days tend to view stuff like this.

I have to admit, there's a good probability that she's right, it would definitely explain alot of the attitude and comments I've encountered from various people over the years when ND is mentioned or suggested.

Unfortunately, we just have to live with it at this point. To go and change our name now would be difficult and risky in it's own right. I always think of Death Angel when they were trying to rid themselves of the stigma attached to their name, and went through a couple of name changes in order to be "taken more seriously", and it backfired. Or bands like Wrathchild America, who also had alot of people who HATED that name and never would take them seriously, and changed their name and wound up falling off the radar real fast because people said, ".....who????" lol

I don't think our name is that bad. I'm sorry that people might think it's trying too hard or turn them off from checking us out. But that's how people are these days. I have friends who flat out refuse to listen to one note of Sleepytime Gorrilla Museum just because of their name alone......and yeah I think that name is WAY worse than ours, lol, but still I'd always give something at least ONE fair listen, regardless of the name. C'est la vie.
 
Novembers Paul said:
Haha! Well, hopefully my inclusion on Deconstruction will break this curse.
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Hehe, we shall see if a bunch of people magically forget who Devin is upon its release.

Yeah I see your points on each act and why it may fall into that placement, it remains disappointing nonetheless, even from a fans standpoint.

NvmbrsDoom5 said:
My wife just came in and read what I'd just posted and added her own analogy of the band name thing, which I think is pretty interesting.

Her take on it, is that alot of people's mindset about ND is that the name sounds like we're "trying too hard", that putting November and Doom together just comes off like it's a cheesy way of conveying this dark mood, whereas just being called one or the other is a bit more acceptable, hence the reason you don't see people bitching about the band "Novembre" in the same way that people nitpick our name. She said that the name just comes off as corny and elicits that preconception that people tend to do towards bands before hearing them.
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I can see where she is coming from with that observation, however, as mentioned I just don't understand how it's as applicable as it is in todays world of metal. Nearly every new band name is cheesy as all hell, and laced with purposely placed misspellings. I will never comprehend how purposely spelling things is 'cool' where as a simple lack of a " ' " is an immediate turn off.

So I just realized how horribly I have derailed this thread, and I apologize :D

Any thoughts on what the Iced Earth change in the vocalist position may bring us with their upcoming album? I'll always love them, and Jon's writing but I would be lying if I didn't say I hope a fresh spot at that critical position sparks some new life into Jon's creativity.
 
Oh it's ok, when the derailment is done by me or Paul, etc., then it's usually allowed lol This forum's been much like a ghost town for the past several months anyhow so some intelligent discussion helps liven things up a bit.

On topic though, I will say that the new Foo Fighters cd will wind up being in mine, Paul, and Sasha's years end lists almost certainly. I haven't even heard the whole disc yet but what I have heard I really liked.
 
well, I just want to put in, I actually decided to check out the band because I liked the name! I thought it had a cool dark vibe to it, still do.
 
great_kthulu said:
well, I just want to put in, I actually decided to check out the band because I liked the name! I thought it had a cool dark vibe to it, still do.
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You and me both...back in the late 90's/early 2000's, I was listening to mostly brutal Death Metal...fast, obnoxious, in your face.....I was looking for something different, and was browsing through the list of metal bands on an old website (mp3.com, I think it was)....I came across "Novembers Doom" and really liked how that sounded....there were 4 mp3's I think posted there: "Amour of the Harp", "Silent Tomorrow", "Shadows of Light", and "Dark Fields for Brilliance"...this was early to mid 2004 I think for me....I heard "Amour of the Harp" was was like "THIS IS THE SOUND I AM LOOKING FOR!".....next was "Dark Fields..." and I was an instant fan...The name attracted me, but then the music took me in...I wish more people would do the same.....
 
Dragon_Unearthed said:
You and me both...back in the late 90's/early 2000's, I was listening to mostly brutal Death Metal...fast, obnoxious, in your face.....I was looking for something different, and was browsing through the list of metal bands on an old website (mp3.com, I think it was)....I came across "Novembers Doom" and really liked how that sounded....there were 4 mp3's I think posted there: "Amour of the Harp", "Silent Tomorrow", "Shadows of Light", and "Dark Fields for Brilliance"...this was early to mid 2004 I think for me....I heard "Amour of the Harp" was was like "THIS IS THE SOUND I AM LOOKING FOR!".....next was "Dark Fields..." and I was an instant fan...The name attracted me, but then the music took me in...I wish more people would do the same.....
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I had a similar experience. I was in a bit of a depressed mood and was browsing through the metal vids on demand from comcast and saw Novembers Doom, Autumn Reflections, and decided to check it out because the band/song name matched my mood. Needless to say I was blown away and have been a fan ever since! I think it was in early 08
 
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