GMD Poll: Top Ten Albums of 1996

[Phylactery]

Great list regardless. Never really got into Brave Murder Myself personally or any Katatonia for that matter. Maybe it's time for a revisit.

I have a confession that will probably land me straight in the out-crowd, but I don't really understand the high status of Psychostasia. It lacks the darkness, heaviness and atmospherics of the first Demigod and the alien otherworldliness of Demilich (the two bands it is most compared to). Tonnes of great riffs on it but as a whole it just doesn't do it for me. I'm going to relisten to it for the purposes of this thread anyway.

Also, I thought you weren't a big fan of Far Away from the Sun?

 

[no country for old wainds]

i'm pretty indifferent to BMD but i have a soft spot for TONIGHT'S DECISION and DISCOURAGED ONES, even though they're basically just dumber (and whinier in the latter case) versions of the cure. on a related note i actually briefly considered listing MORNINGRISE until i remembered how painfully uneven and haphazard it is. i have a lot of love for that album's best moments but no fuck opeth, the songwriting on their first two doesn't even deserve to be called songwriting.

PSYCHOSTASIA won't make my list but it's cool stuff, not being able to compare to demigod or demilich isn't exactly a dealbreaker lol

 

[Phylactery]

I kinda agree about Morningrise, but I just really like its atmosphere and individual sections. It will at least be an honourable mention on my list.

I've seen many opinions that Psychostasia is as good as the Demigod and Demilich but I just can't agree. Good but not great is my opinion of it now, but this may change when I relisten to it.

 

[-CC-]

I have a confession that will probably land me straight in the out-crowd, but I don't really understand the high status of Psychostasia. It lacks the darkness, heaviness and atmospherics of the first Demigod and the alien otherworldliness of Demilich (the two bands it is most compared to). Tonnes of great riffs on it but as a whole it just doesn't do it for me. I'm going to relisten to it for the purposes of this thread anyway.

Oh, Psychostasia doesn't even got close to touching the top stuff of old school Finnish DM, but that time and region produced the greatest metal albums of ALL TIME (fite me bish) so you know it's gonna be fucking great anyway. Adramelech DID get close to a Slumber-level with Spring of Recovery IMO. It's just way too short.

 

[crimsonfloyd]

Regarding Morningrise, I think people are looking at it wrong. It's journey music. There isn't supposed to be a fixed structure to it. All the songs have clear emotive developments and distinct moods to them, so I see no problems with the song structures. Psychostasia is borderline to me, but will probably end up on the honorable mentions list. In other years, it would probably make it, but this year is extremely stacked. I promised myself I'd give Far Away From the Sun one more chance when the 96 list came up, so I still need to do that.

 

[no country for old wainds]

my complaint is that it fails, at least partially anyway, at being journey music. a journey requires coherence kind of by definition, and the same goes for sustaining or developing a mood - obviously jarring transitions can sometimes serve a conceptual purpose but in opeth's case they just don't have an instinct for flow, nor do they have quality control, nor the humility to recognise their own limitations etc (all of which is true of most prog metal when compared to prog rock and/or trad metal, let's face it). i think they matured into somewhat less crude songwriters after this album, but they also slowly started to run out of good ideas unfortunately.

but w/e, none of this mattered to me when i was 14 and i'm not sure i've ever been so deeply moved by music before or since. this album (all the first five really) will always have a place in my heart.

 

[Phylactery]

Deathcult and FAFtS are far more moving than any Opeth.

While Blackwater Park and Still Life may have more coherent structure, they have the issue of having much weaker and forgettable songs. Harvest, The Funeral Portrait, Serenity Painted Death, White Cluster, Benighted etc are all quite weak.

I think Dirge for November is one of their most emotive pieces and a highlight of BWP (The Leper Affinity and the title track being the other best tracks). Of course, a lot of Opeth fans being idiots consider it to be a low point of the band.

 

[no country for old wainds]

Deathcult and FAFtS are far more moving than any Opeth.

be careful you don't set your keyboard on fire with all these hot takes

 

[no country for old wainds]

from memory i'd substitute 'bleak' for the title track which i was never too fond of, but yeah i always found 'dirge...' underrated and 'the funeral portrait' to be one of the band's low points.

 

[Phylactery]

Bleak's good too, but Steven Wilson's whiny vocals have always annoyed me.

 

[crimsonfloyd]

Deathcult and FAFtS are far more moving than any Opeth.

While Blackwater Park and Still Life may have more coherent structure, they have the issue of having much weaker and forgettable songs. Harvest, The Funeral Portrait, Serenity Painted Death, White Cluster, Benighted etc are all quite weak.

I think Dirge for November is one of their most emotive pieces and a highlight of BWP (The Leper Affinity and the title track being the other best tracks). Of course, a lot of Opeth fans being idiots consider it to be a low point of the band.

I've never heard this before. Weakest of the first 5, but the first five are also clearly their best.

 

[no country for old wainds]

i think he meant 'dirge for november', not the album

unless you did too

shit

no i think you didn't phew

 

[Phylactery]

Yeah, I was talking about the song "Dirge for November" being considered one of their weakest tracks, not Blackwater Park as an album.

Thank god someone else agrees that "The Funeral Portrait" is a shitty song.

 

[crimsonfloyd]

Fuck man, "The Funeral Portrait" slays.

 

[crimsonfloyd]

OK I think I've settled on my list. This year is ridiculously deep, especially in black metal.

1. Neurosis- Through Silver in Blood
2. Opeth- Morningrise
3. Burzum- Filosofem
4. Cryptopsy- None So Vile
5. Ildjarn- Strength and Anger
6. Summoning- Dol Goldur
7. Immolation- Here in After
8. Arcturus- Aspera Heims Symphonia
9. Bethlehem- Dicticus te necare
10. Theatre of Tragedy- Velvet Darkness They Fear

Honorable Mentions:
Adramelech- Psychostasia
Blut Aus Nord- Memoria Vetusta I: Fathers of the Icy Age
Brenoritvrezorkre- Vasagraèbe éakr vatrè brenoritvrezorkre
Katatonia- Brave Murder Day
Countess- The Book of the Heretic
Gorgoroth- Antichrist
Satyricon- Nemesis Devina
Mayhem- Live in Liepzig
Forgotten Woods- The Curse of Mankind
Dimmu Borgir- Stormblast

I gave Far Away From the Sun another listen today and have to say it's better than I remember on the whole. I'll give it another listen tomorrow, but it's hard to see it breaking in on a list this strong.

 

[Phylactery]

I gave Far Away From the Sun another listen today and have to say it's better than I remember on the whole. I'll give it another listen tomorrow, but it's hard to see it breaking in on a list this strong.

Focus on tracks 2, 5, 6 and 7. These songs peak higher than almost any other in the genre imo. Of course the whole album is amazing and there isn't a weak track, but these are the best.

Despite what many would have you believe, Dissection is NOT the first reference point for this album - it does not feature the death, thrash and heavy metal inflections of something like SotLB. Instead, the weird and emotionally impacting melodies remind me far more of the first At the Gates and even Pure Holocaust. So I'd listen to it with those in mind.

 

[TechnicalBarbarity]

Psychostasia is definitely a top 5(if not top 3) Finnish DM album. Lacks heaviness, darkness and atmosphere? What in the fuckin' world where you listening to? Trumps Far Away From the Sun in just about every one of those departments.

 

[EspaDa]

1. Neurosis - Through Silver in Blood
2. Burzum - Filosofem
3. Cryptopsy - None So Vile
4. Immolation - Here in After
5. Acid Bath - Paegan Terrorism Tactics
6. Vinterland - Welcome My Last Chapter
7. In Flames - The Jester Race
8. Satyricon - Nemesis Divina
9. Sacramentum - Far Away From the Sun
10. Eyehategod - Dopesick

Honorable mention:
Scald - Will of Gods is a Great Power
Hypocrisy - Abducted
Monstrosity - Millennium
Limbonic Art - Moon in the Scorpio
Gates of Ishtar - A Bloodred Path
Angelcorpse - Hammer of Gods

 

[Vegard Pompey]

Also, I thought you weren't a big fan of Far Away from the Sun?

I am and I'm not; it's damn gorgeously emotional sometimes (lyrics help a lot too) but still steeped in a black metal sound that alienates me. The biggest problem I have with it are the blast beats; I hate 'em in general unless used in very short bursts, they don't even sound rhythmic to me, any time they come on in FAftS all I hear is SNARESNARESNARESNARE and it just sounds completely retarded. And it's especially distracting in such an otherwise elegantly flowing album as that. I guess this isn't a problem BM-heads have, but I never was one.

 

[Phylactery]

Psychostasia is definitely a top 5(if not top 3) Finnish DM album. Lacks heaviness, darkness and atmosphere? What in the fuckin' world where you listening to? Trumps Far Away From the Sun in just about every one of those departments.

I said it lacks the darkness, heaviness and atmosphere of Slumber of Sullen Eyes, which I don't think is an arguable point really. But FAftS is definitely darker and more atmospheric than Psychostasia. Obviously Psychostasia wins on heaviness, black metal isn't really known for being heavy, nor does most of it try to be.

I am and I'm not; it's damn gorgeously emotional sometimes (lyrics help a lot too) but still steeped in a black metal sound that alienates me. The biggest problem I have with it are the blast beats; I hate 'em in general unless used in very short bursts, they don't even sound rhythmic to me, any time they come on in FAftS all I hear is SNARESNARESNARESNARE and it just sounds completely retarded. And it's especially distracting in such an otherwise elegantly flowing album as that. I guess this isn't a problem BM-heads have, but I never was one.

I love the drumming on FAFtS, but yeah there is a tonne of blasting on that record so I can why you'd take issue with that. The blasts are quite varied, though. When I first started listening to it I thought there was too much blasting, but it provides the perfect background to the let the gorgeous melodies wash over you. Black metal is definitely the genre that best gets away with blast beat abuse imo.