As The World Bleeds, the First Two Tracks...and I'm worried.

Batguy21784

Batguy21784

Member
Feb 8, 2009
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Hey Theocracy and Theocracy fans! It's Tuesday, Oct. 10/20 and of course I just downloaded 30 Pieces of Silver from iTunes! lol I will buy every single you release AND the whole CD. Yeah, I'm impatient like that. Plus, I figure it supports a band who rocks the truth.

That said, Wages of Sin (not on the CD, but only the digibook, I guess), and 30 Pieces of Silver have me a little worried about the direction Theocracy is headed. Don't get me wrong, Theocracy has every right to go any direction with their sound that they want to. No one died and made me God, that's for sure!

But for what it's worth, here's my concern: I'm hearing a LOT of that Boom-chick, Boom-chick death metal/hardcore punk beat in these songs. I love the progressive elements and the melody and the changes in the songs. The message is profound, as usual. I just don't much care for the boom-chick beat. Maybe that doesn't make sense? For an example of beat I'm talking about, go to 30 seconds in to 30 Pieces of Silver, it's the beat behind Matt's vocals. For me, it's distracting and kind of destroys the melody.

I know that the beat is kind of a staple in Power Metal (esp. in Thrash/Speed/Death Metal), but it annoys me. When I go shopping for music, if more than a few songs on a CD have that beat, I won't buy the CD. It's kind of like those European bands that use the Beauty and the Beast format. Drives me up a freakin wall when I'm listening to a killer tune, guitar all crunch and this beautiful mezzo-soprano female vocalist (Simone Simons comes to mind) just mesmerizing me, and then it happens: Enter the Cookie Monster! RAH, RAH, RAH, Growl! Growl! The song just comes to a screeching halt for me.

Anyway, just my take. Looking forward to the rest of As the World Bleeds.

:headbang:

P.S. Please, Theocracy, promise no death growls...ever! Please?
 
I agree, I love beauty and the beast vocals.
And the drumming is more varied than on the self-titled (which happened to be a two or three beat deal on most of the verses)
I love the self-titled
Vis-a-vie, no complaint. :p
 
I would pretty much blame it on Shawn. Before, Matt had a nice drum machine to do his dictatorial bidding. If you've met Shawn, then you know that he is a "boom-chick" kind of guy. That, and he was pregnant while making this record. Everybody knows that pregnancy and drumming do NOT mix.

P.S. Matt is working on a thrash side project titled "Death Growl Magnetic". Not only will it be a growltastic sound fest, but it will also feature the infamous snare sound in his St. Anger parody.
 
Yeah, I get that some folks like the growls and boom-chick beats. Music is, after all, a preference thing. There's no "this is better" or "this is inferior" kind of thing. I'm a huge Theocracy fan b/c they are one of the VERY few bands that play the style of music I LOVE, but speak the truth in a very artistic way.

I'd hate to see Theocracy become a repetitive boom-chick beat/ death growl kind of band. And this male drummer being pregnant thing really has me concerned. LOL

Just curious, for those who profess to like the growls and the beauty and the beast style, what do you see in it? I mean, the musical instruments aside, the beautiful female vocals aside...what is it to enjoy about the growls? It sounds like someone vomiting on the microphone to me. :puke:
 
Batguy21784 said:
Just curious, for those who profess to like the growls and the beauty and the beast style, what do you see in it? I mean, the musical instruments aside, the beautiful female vocals aside...what is it to enjoy about the growls? It sounds like someone vomiting on the microphone to me. :puke:
Click to expand...
Amen to that. As soon as I hear any of that the song never gets played again! Can't handle that kind of stuff; for me, it just subtracts from what could well be great music. I'd argue that what's left is no longer music :p. I feel exactly the same about punk-screamo stuff too. Urrgh! :puke:

I think Theocracy are quite varied in their style so at least the whole song isn't like that, Batguy. Only a smallish portion really, if I understand what you're on about.
 
I like death growls. I like death metal. Should Theocracy do growls? No.

As for why I like em:
They're heavier than a singing voice
They take talent (yes, they do)
Makes it more versatile if there is singing and growls
And finally: Could a power metal singer (or any singer for that matter) sing to this and still have it sound good?
 
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I'm listening to a killer tune, guitar all crunch and this beautiful mezzo-soprano female vocalist (Simone Simons comes to mind) just mesmerizing me, and then it happens: Enter the Cookie Monster!
Click to expand...

Same thing just happened to me! And I was loving the song too!

Yeah, it may take skill to sound that unpleasant, but that's no basis for doing it. It may take talent to sing the whole song one quarter-tone off-pitch from the other instruments, but that doesn't mean it's enjoyable to listen to. Screaming is just extraneous noise that adds nothing musical to the piece. I'm a fan of music.

Didn't see anything annoying about the beats of the Theocracy songs, though (from what I've heard).
 
JayArby said:
It may take talent to sing the whole song one quarter-tone off-pitch from the other instruments
Click to expand...
I can do that! No problem! Yes! I have a talent!

In Epica and Slechtvalk I can see the point in the growls and screams and whatever, as it is tied to characters or situations (leaving a battlefield more dead than alive), but I only got used to it as I did not want to not listen to Epica. The credits for that go to Simone, of course...
 
Now, now, Denderby, characterizing us as "whiners" is getting a little personal, bro. LOL Voicing a preference isn't whining. Nor are any of us down on Theocracy.

Theocracy would have to do a serious about face for me to stop listening. Now, if they became Screamo Devil Worshippers, I'd have to look elsewhere, but aside from that...:zombie:
 
Batguy, I've noticed quite a difference in how the Boom-Chick sound interferes with the music, dependent on the audio system it is played on. It's almost bad when played on the laptop speakers, with the drums playing loudly through Matt's singing, but Matt's voice contrasts very well with the music when listened to through the headphones. For me it has the effect of pumping up in anticipation of the change that comes, and then it's there. So, no disappointment there for me. :)
 
Yeah, BM, it's just in small parts, and I love the rest--the transitions, slow downs, extra pure crunch moments, and brilliant harmonies. It's all good.
 
Huh, I've never specifically noticed the "boom-chick beat" you mentioned. If it's a staple of the genre, I guess I like it, because I like the genre :lol:

I partially agree with you on growls. I won't bash them as "no talent" (as some do), it's just a preference thing (a lot of my metal friends love them). Typically, I am never going to listen to a band that's mostly growls for vocals. It just does not "do it" for me. As long as it's a minority of the vocals, I can handle it. Epica is a good example - I love the band and the percentage of the time they do it is tolerable to me. Any more and I may not listen. That's what happened to me with the new James Labrie album. I just can't get into it because there's too much growling (for me) and not enough Labrie.

Although I'd prefer zero growling, here's one song were I would hate it if they took away the growls, because Threshold had Dan Swanö add growls to Slipstream for a very specific reason: as a counter-weight to Mac's vocals and it actually conveys the meaning of the lyrics *better* than clean vocals could (I read in an interview that the point was to "knock or shock the listener back to reality with the growls"). The song is about going for your dreams and not settling:

"Dreams are for the bold and you're not that kind
Disappointment, has a house on that road, best to stay at home
OH DO YOU REALLY THINK SO???"



Plus, Matt has already explored the death metal genre on Mirror of Souls, so I think he has it out of his system :lol::lol::lol::

http://grooveshark.com/#/s/Mirrorofsoulsexcerpt/1VU2tG?src=5
 
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+1 on SeaStorm's comments on the vocals for that Threshold song! Slipstream is probably my favorite song of theirs (though I am not familiar with their entire catalogue). The use of the growls is what sets that song apart for me. Ten years ago I wouldn't listen to anything with growls on it. Then I was gradually exposed to extreme vocals by bands using it sparingly to convey an extra dimension to their songs. For example, Ayreon used them in Into The Electric Castle and The Human Equation (for the characters Death and Fear, respectively). Then I began to listen to bands like Adagio and Divinefire that used them a bit more. I still don't think I could ever listen to an album with only extreme vocals. I still much prefer clean vocals, and prefer to listen to bands that primarily use clean vocals. Though, I really like the new James LaBrie album, too. :)
 
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