How do you feel about "best of" albums?

Johan

Opeth, ergo sum.
May 22, 2001
530
0
16
Sweden
I got the Swedish Metal mag Close Up in my mailbox yesterday, and I was quite shocked when I saw an ad for...

Hypocrisy - 10 Years of Chaos and Confusion

I was thinking, wtf? have they lost it? Leave the damn best ofs to artists like Meatloaf and Britney Spears. Well I read closer, and...

Limited Edition 2CD
CD1: Best of/14 re-recorded songs
CD2: unreleased/live/excluside tracks + CD rom track
(In store July 30)

So maybe it's not so bad anyway. I was wondering what you guys think though. Heh, any Hypocrisy fans at all here? :)

Another very interesting ad was for the upcoming In Flames live album (August 6)
 
ooooooh, i LOVE Hypocrisy! that is, i love their music, my problem with them is that the stupid lyrics tend to turn me off, if i'm gonna really really like a band i should like the lyrics as much as i like the music if not more.

as for best of compilations, i hate it when they include live and rare tracks just to make the dedicated fans get it. as for "best of"'s in general, i think they're only good for average artists which got only a few good songs and you could get 'em all on one cd, making a best of for bands such as Opeth, Nevermore or Emperor is just plain stupid. same for hypocrisy.
 
You know, you're right... and I fall right into that trap, wanting the CD because of the rare/unreleased/live tracks.

I can't imagine a best of from Opeth, that's just unthinkable. You need to listen to any Opeth song in context with the rest of the songs in its original album.
 
Well actually if opeth released another 4 or 5 album (lets say) and they decided to release a "greatest hits" well not really hits but you get the point , then i'd go for that , I think i't would be a good Idea . It would be hard picking 10 great opeth songs to put on a cd though
 
I Love Hypocrisy,but i hate "best off"s....... but anyway i will do an exception for them as i did for At the Gates,Darkthrone,Edge Of Sanity....blah blah.......

at least there will be unreleased stuff!!! : ))



btw,even NECROMANTIA will release a best-off (!!!!!)
 
now look at this....I did my miracle again......i spelled the word "best-of" as "best-off".........hmmmmmmmm,it rhymes with "rip-off" *kidding....*
 
I really don't care because the only "Greatest Hits" album I would get is one by a band that i really like. And since I really like them I would already have all their albums and there would be no need to buy a greatest hits album. But for people who never really gave the band a chance it's a good cd to buy and hear all the "best" songs and see if buying the albums would be worth it.
 
Do any of you think that Opeth would release a "best of"?
I seriously doubt it, they'd have to trash concept albums and I don't know... but if the record company decides to make one maybe they can't say no...
 
No way. Not a fan of Greatest Hits CD's at all.

How can a record company decide what the band's Greatest Hits were... when bands like Opeth don't even have "hits"? Exactly. They can't. So it would be up to them and they would probably fuck it up.
 
Can you imagine yourself listening to black-rose immortal without listening to the rest of the album? A band like opeth should never allow this thing! It will have a very confused atmosphere and the lyrics will have no meaning. Besides, i always hated "best of" cds.

And i also like hypocricy much, though the meaningless lyrics. I am soooo happy they didn't attach them to 'into the abyss'. At least i have the illusion that they MIGHT be meaningful :)
 
I actually like taking songs off of their contexts and compiling them with others. It is pretty interesting to listen to, for example "Bleak" right after "To Bid You Farewell". I just recently made my first Opeth compilation-tape (100 min), which includes:

Side A:

1. Serenity Painted Death (magnificent "opener")
2. Requiem (an interlude)
3. Karma (the ending fits well with the following song)
4. To Bid You Farewell
5. Bleak (!)
6. The Apostle in Triumph (actually doesn't fit very well here, but I just HAD to place it somewhere)

Side B:

1. Nectar (great!)
2. Patterns in the Ivy (another interlude)
3. Moonlapse Vertigo (one is almost expecting "Face of Melinda" after this one, but instead gets...)
4. When (surprise!)
5. The Funeral Portrait (thundering!)
6. Face of Melinda
7. Epilogue (the absolute "closer")

So, the tape lacks some great songs that should have been there (like Under the Weeping Moon, Advent, Demon of the Fall, Credence, The Moor and Harvest), but as I haven't yet found tapes longer that 100 min. :) Well, perhaps I make another one...

About commercial best-of's - why bother buying them, if they don't have any "extra" material? I can always make one myself.

-Villain
 
Well, (on the Hypocrisy line of thought) I'm pretty sure lyrics weren't included for most (all?) of their albums. I've read several interviews with Peter Tagtgren about this and the interviewer always asks why he doesn't include his lyrics and he always responds with that it's because he doesn't think they're very good. So at least he's aware. I dunno. I've never really paid attention to Hypocrisy's lyrics anyway. Most are unintelligable as it is.
 
hypocrisy has never included their lyrics to a release....
I don't like "best of" cds, I think it's much better to release live albums. Like Decade of Aggression by Slayer, excellent live album that sums up their first ten years.

BTW, I've just bought a Hypocrisy live dvd, very cool stuff.
 
On the album "Final Chapter" they have the lyrics for song "Final Chapter"(!) listed there. Other than that, I think even mr. Tägtren himself doesn't know all those lyrics. :)

Concerning Tägtren, what do you guys think of Pain?

-Villain