Kvelldsanger--Ulver

wankerness said:
No, he's right. I like the album and like Ulver, but I can guarantee you that if you put it next to actual acoustic folk albums and then asked those who exclusively listen to such to grade it, they'd probably say about a 2/10. Very stereotypical/simple playing, sparse arrangements and some questionable vocals. Only metal fans really like it. It's the same deal with their electronic stuff like Perdition City, metal fans are all like OOOO AMAZING but electronica fans weren't generally impressed in the least. I've never seen any example of someone that didn't listen to metal liking either of those albums (or the silence eps).
But I think it's meant to be simple music from the heart. And even if you don't enjoy listening to stuff like that, you have to at least respect it.
 
wankerness said:
Their vocals are fairly bad on their first two albums, they're better on the third, and on Weiland they're not bad AT ALL (they hired a professional singer for that one :P). Coincidentally, Weiland is their best album (well, their second album might be better, but that one's only partly acoustic).
Weiland is the only album i've heard fully, and the vocals on that just make me giggle! I'm not keen of the operatic style and the German language has always had the ability to make me laugh immaturely.

Don't get me wrong, fantastic music.. And i like the fact the vocals are an original concept within this style.. But they don't quite do it for me!
 
opeth_353 said:
Weiland is the only album i've heard fully, and the vocals on that just make me giggle! I'm not keen of the operatic style and the German language has always had the ability to make me laugh immaturely.

Don't get me wrong, fantastic music.. And i like the fact the vocals are an original concept within this style.. But they don't quite do it for me!

I wouldn't call it operatic, the guy they hired sounds like he's probably a professional singer of recreated medieval folk music, as what I've heard of that sounds somewhat similar vocally. So it's actually pretty appropriate to the style. I can see how it would be funny to some people though.
 
wankerness said:
I wouldn't call it operatic, the guy they hired sounds like he's probably a professional singer of recreated medieval folk music, as what I've heard of that sounds somewhat similar vocally. So it's actually pretty appropriate to the style. I can see how it would be funny to some people though.
Again, don't get me wrong, i don't dislike it.. I just can't help but laugh when i hear it! What i've heard of Empyrium is seriously good stuff, and the vocals on Weiland a competent and i appreciate the fact they're doing something different, i just happen to find them amusing at the same time!
 
wankerness said:
It's the same deal with their electronic stuff like Perdition City, metal fans are all like OOOO AMAZING but electronica fans weren't generally impressed in the least. I've never seen any example of someone that didn't listen to metal liking either of those albums (or the silence eps).
such sweeping claims but I really don't know where you're coming from. how do you figure electronica fans in general aren't impressed by Perdition City? like... how are you drawing such a grand conclusion? and besides, what makes these "electronica fans" exempt from being as close-minded as metalheads to their respective genre and not "getting" Ulver, just as probably 99% of metalheads likewise don't "get" Ulver?
 
House of Seance said:
such sweeping claims but I really don't know where you're coming from. how do you figure electronica fans in general aren't impressed by Perdition City? like... how are you drawing such a grand conclusion? and besides, what makes these "electronica fans" exempt from being as close-minded as metalheads to their respective genre and not "getting" Ulver, just as probably 99% of metalheads likewise don't "get" Ulver?

It's like when Hank Williams Jr. made a metal album, all metal fans were like 'that is shit' but country fans were like HELL YEAH THIS ROCKS I DON'T LIKE METAL NORMALLY BUT THIS IS AWESOME. Obviously Ulver is not as shitty as Hank Williams Jr, but it's the same basic idea - a band from one genre dabbles in another, and fans of their original genre think it's cool but people who are actually into the genre identify it as dabbling and are unimpressed. I know people that like electronica, and none of them were remotely impressed by perdition city. And I've never seen a positive review of Perdition City by anyone that wasn't either already into Ulver or a metal fan that was told to check it out.
 
wankerness said:
No, he's right. I like the album and like Ulver, but I can guarantee you that if you put it next to actual acoustic folk albums and then asked those who exclusively listen to such to grade it, they'd probably say about a 2/10. Very stereotypical/simple playing, sparse arrangements and some questionable vocals. Only metal fans really like it.

If by "actual acoustic folk albums" you mean folk-style albums recorded by modern, professional musicians, then you may be right, but this type of statement is extremely ignorant of what folk music is. Folk music IS often simple, heartfelt music, the music of the common folk, not overtly theoretical, and often relayed through generations by oral traditions. This does not translate to highly learned, technical, ornamented music that would be preferred by what you and hibernal are probably thinking of as serious fans of acoustic music.

My point: These are two different styles and while you might prefer one, that doesn't mean the other "is bad" or that there is some authority out there who can decide a piece of music "is bad" and have that actually mean anything to someone of different opinion.
 
Demilich said:
If by "actual acoustic folk albums" you mean folk-style albums recorded by modern, professional musicians, then you may be right, but this type of statement is extremely ignorant of what folk music is. Folk music IS often simple, heartfelt music, the music of the common folk, not overtly theoretical, and often relayed through generations by oral traditions. This does not translate to highly learned, technical, ornamented music that would be preferred by what you and hibernal are probably thinking of as serious fans of acoustic music.

My point: These are two different styles and while you might prefer one, that doesn't mean the other "is bad" or that there is some authority out there who can decide a piece of music "is bad" and have that actually mean anything to someone of different opinion.

You can say the same thing about almost any genre. "oh, this crappy band that wants to kill all christians and records in the blak forest of evul is so much more metal than opeth, traditional metal was about evulness, maybe opeth is better than them to people that listen to stuff that doesn't uphold the genre's ideals." The point is, the album probably isn't really going to stand out to people that are into acoustic folky stuff. It's not a bad album, I quite like it, but I am a metal fan. ;D
 
You know what? Folk has centuries upon centuries of tradition, metal has 35 years. How are they comparable in the development of their traditions? Folk is also not a 'genre' in the same way as metal. It predates mass communication, has no uniform set of defining propeties, no single origin, diversity of instrumentation, and can be expressed in a plethora of ways depending on place of origin, influence, experience, etc. Oh shit, could those be some of the reasons that it isn't very becoming of one to start mouthing off about how poorly an album would stand up to the criticism of some abstract, fuzzy concept of an elite group?
 
wankerness...a good majority of the electronic music community were VERY receptive to Perdition City, and it got great praise and reviews most of the time. so i dont know what youre talking about.
 
NineFeetUnderground said:
wankerness...a good majority of the electronic music community were VERY receptive to Perdition City, and it got great praise and reviews most of the time. so i dont know what youre talking about.

Don't ask me, I don't read electronica zines, I just know that none of the few people I know that like electronica were interested in it, many of them lamenting about the simplicity of the arrangements and "blahblah obvious unfamiliarity with *insert 300 terms regarding electronic music sequencers.*" and this same discussion happened on some other forum I frequent where it was concluded that no one could produce any evidence of a positive reception in the non-metal community with detractors actively saying that they'd looked for but couldn't find any and that Ulver had failed in their attempt at competing with any real electronica groups. If there is any evidence of positive reception I'd like to see it, not saying you're wrong or anything.
 
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