Best album of 2011

[Gaza]

Listening to Machine Head's new one, Unto the Locust- Quite the awesome!

 

[Djabthrash]

You did the artwork ???

 

[Djabthrash]

Is this just me or: The title track of Mastodons 'The Hunter' really reminds me of something from Metallicas 'Load'. Even the voice sounds a bit like James?

On the chorus the voice sounds a bit like James indeed. On the verses (Brett Hinds) definitely not

Love that song. Super moody/strange/sad/mysterious and beautiful, thanks to those typical Mastodonish arpeggios.

This song sounds like it was mainly written during the Crack The Skye era, unlike the "new" stuff like "Blasteroid" and all the other straightforward/supercatchy bits.

 

[Virgil.]

so derailed.

 

[Leon--]

Septicflesh-The great mass is the masterpiece of this year

 

[AEL89]

Yeah I know it wasn't aimed at me. But I'm not quite sure how you can say "music is subjective", but also; "If you can't even appreciate the quality of the production on Crack The Skye or The Hunter then you're simply deaf."

So your ethos is; people can enjoy whatever music they want - but if they don't appreciate the music that you like then they are stupid/have an opinion of zero value? Perhaps I completely misinterpreted the tone of your post(s), in which case I apologise. But the sentence above didn't exactly come across as being laced in irony.

And I'm saying this as someone who has been into Mastodon since they released Remission, so it's not as if I even disagree with your appreciation of that band in particular.

"Appreciate" is the operative word here and definitely isn't the same as "like" which is why I didn't say "If you don't even like the quality of the production on Crack The Skye or The Hunter then you're simply deaf". Appreciate denotes subjectivity and like denotes objectivity. Quality of production is qualitative (obvzz) but it can be quantified or measured more than musical taste. I'm not expecting people to appreciate how awesome Seputura's Arise sounds because, although awesome, that's far more debatable.

And no my ethos is not "people can enjoy whatever music they want - but if they don't appreciate the music that you like then they are stupid/have an opinion of zero value". This year I've engineered or produced everything between death metal (Chapters - on tour with Sylosis at the moment - nice artwork by the way ) to the choir who work at the chapel in Windsor Castle. With metalcore, folk, indie, rock, rap and acoustic stuff in between (and way more). My point is if I judged people by their musical tastes I wouldn't bother working with them, seriously.

And Symphony X are still

And now that I've mentioned Chapters - that will be a great album. Not sure if they'll get it out by the end of the year though. Maybe I'm biased though.

 

[dan weapon]

You did the artwork ???

Yes indeed sir

 

[dan weapon]

And no my ethos is not "people can enjoy whatever music they want - but if they don't appreciate the music that you like then they are stupid/have an opinion of zero value". This year I've engineered or produced everything between death metal (Chapters - on tour with Sylosis at the moment - nice artwork by the way ) to the choir who work at the chapel in Windsor Castle. With metalcore, folk, indie, rock, rap and acoustic stuff in between (and way more). My point is if I judged people by their musical tastes I wouldn't bother working with them, seriously.

And Symphony X are still

And now that I've mentioned Chapters - that will be a great album. Not sure if they'll get it out by the end of the year though. Maybe I'm biased though.

Fair play sir. Although far from my favourite band, I would say Symphony X are objectively superb musicians and are often relatively restrained compared to a lot of the widdly-wank bands who occupy a similar territory on the musical spectrum. I like the fact they have a ton of groove-Pantera-esque riffs rather than the same old poo that a lot of power metal bands have, and I could put forth a ton of other factors that makes them appeal to me personally. But we'll have to agree to disagree on this band.

I'm not going to get into the production argument here... I like the bands I like regardless of the production. I would say a lot of the Scott Burns stuff like Obituary, Cannibal Corpse, Death (and Arise, like you mention - although that is one of the better ones) are objectively pretty gash sounding, but I still love them.

Anyways, peace and all that. I'm afraid I just know a few too many people that have the old "this album's amazing and if you disagree with me you're wrong" attitude... and I (possibly incorrectly) read that into your comments.

 

[AEL89]

Fair play sir. Although far from my favourite band, I would say Symphony X are objectively superb musicians and are often relatively restrained compared to a lot of the widdly-wank bands who occupy a similar territory on the musical spectrum. I like the fact they have a ton of groove-Pantera-esque riffs rather than the same old poo that a lot of power metal bands have, and I could put forth a ton of other factors that makes them appeal to me personally. But we'll have to agree to disagree on this band.

I'm not going to get into the production argument here... I like the bands I like regardless of the production. I would say a lot of the Scott Burns stuff like Obituary, Cannibal Corpse, Death (and Arise, like you mention - although that is one of the better ones) are objectively pretty gash sounding, but I still love them.

Anyways, peace and all that. I'm afraid I just know a few too many people that have the old "this album's amazing and if you disagree with me you're wrong" attitude... and I (possibly incorrectly) read that into your comments.

Agreed on all points there! Fuck knows how Scott Burns got away with those cardboard drum tones for so long (should have used Slate samples L0L), but I wouldn't change it! The vibe is perfect. Mids on 0 too - standard procedure.

And to add one other album to this thread - "Build A Rocket Boys" by Elbow is really quite a special album. Similarly too Mastodon with Crack the Skye; Elbow had so much to live up to after the Seldom Seen Kid, which really was a masterpiece. Its a great album in its own right though - even compared to the previous release. It got nominated for the Mercury Music Prize this year which the Seldom Seen Kid won in 2008. Good effort.

Any Elbow fans out there?

 

[Ermz]

The Fallen - Naberus (it's actually an EP but who gives a fuck )

Wow, glad you think so highly of it. I'm sure the guys would be thrilled to know it made someone's 'best of year' list.

 

[AndrewB]

Wow, glad you think so highly of it. I'm sure the guys would be thrilled to know it made someone's 'best of year' list.

Yeah, I really love the songs on it.

The production doesn't quite do it justice, though.

 

[Seizure.]

Any Elbow fans out there?

Yes! loneliness of a towercrane driver with the bbc orchestra... just stunning

 

[MindMunch]

Probaby not the best 2011 album, but I really liked how "straight to the point" the new Sepultura album is. Loved this song:

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Bury Your Dead- Mosh n' Roll : (Flamesuit on)

The fuck you need a flame suit for? Record was good.

Anyhow for me it's been Devin and Origin for the year, which is hilarious because they are completely different records .

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Exactly - a persons taste in music automatically defines how credible their opinions/experiences are.

No it doesn't but you wouldn't take advise from someone that hated the music you were trying to record without a giant rock of salt would you?

It's hard to be objective when you can't stand the music in question, hence why I don't bother commenting on any form of hip hop production.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

If you can't even appreciate the quality of the production on Crack The Skye

I can most definitely appreciate the production, I even went so far as to read some articles on the process they went through and gave that record quite a few spins...

I just can't get past the vocals, actually I think I would LOVE mastodon if they did something different on the vocal end of things.

I'll check out the new record as well since people say it's different than crack but I don't have high hopes since I have not liked mastodon thus far...

For the most part I think it's a fan boy thing that people get so uptight when someone says they don't like Mastodon, like it's a crime to not like that band. It's a lot like Tool and Between The Buried and Me. Holly shit if you don't like either one of those bands either you better get a good flame suit for saying so in public.

 

[osum]

The Fallen - Naberus (it's actually an EP but who gives a fuck )

Actually I hadn't heard of Naberus before last week, but I went to Ermz's studio link, and listened to "The Fallen" by Naberus on the home page, and I LOVED it. So thank you Ermz!

I fully agree, that stuff rocks. (And the producion too )

 

[lolzgreg]

Can we rewind to 2010 so I can say "The Panic Broadcast"

Seriously... I want to hear the new Textures pretty badly

 

[Djabthrash]

Yes indeed sir

Nice ! Killer job.

 

[Matt-Steele]

No it doesn't but you wouldn't take advise from someone that hated the music you were trying to record without a giant rock of salt would you?

Exactly. Thanks for expressing my perspective better than I did.

It's hard to be objective when you can't stand the music in question, hence why I don't bother commenting on any form of hip hop production.

Or pop punk.