Non-gay bro thread a.k.a. Random offtopic stuff.

[DE4life]

Same band! Draconian Poetry is the only album I've heard by them. I'm into that ambient doomy stuff. I'm a FF7 fan myself, but this band (apparently it's just one guy, as these ambient projects tend to be) just happened to show up on my Pandora in the late '00s.

I can't remember what I was expecting, but it wasn't what I heard. I'm sure it's good for people who like that kind of sound though.

I've got the impression the band was not a very tight unit around the time of ODAD anymore. Stauch was gone, and as far as I know Carlsson and Norberg have always worked day jobs as Persuader never really made it big, so perhaps they had commitment problems already. Sielck's main focus has always been on Iron Savior. I remember some interview with Stauch around the time when the unfinished album was in the making (2013?) and he said there's been delays because the Swedes seem to be so busy with life, or something.

Yeah, most metal bands don't get to the point where they can support themselves with the music alone, so day jobs and general life can often get in the way - even if the band is very promising. There was an interesting thread on the Power Metal subreddit where bands were replying as to whether they can live off their music and it was quite eye-opening. Short answer for the majority of them: no. The music is a passion project that they have to fit around their daily lives.

Dragony are one of my favourite recent bands, with Viribus Unitis being one of my favourite overall albums of the past few years. The vocalist replied in the thread and, yeah, even a great band like that who have been around for a while are still focused on making ends meet in their normal lives, like the rest of us. It's a shame in a way because, from my perspective, bands like that are so good that they deserve to be able to make a living off their music. Unfortunately most metal genres are just not mainstream enough to make that a viable proposition. A lot of bands lose money touring because they have to pay for visas, equipment, road crew and sometimes even the venue itself. The idea is that exposure will eventually lead to them being paid to tour rather than the other way around, but if you haven't got the money to chuck at taking that risk then you rely solely on becoming a viral hit - and the chances of that happening in most metal genres is pretty damn small.

 

[ThePhobiac]

That sounded so weird I just had to check them out. And I quite liked it. But is he singing in some made up language or... ?

Yeah, he made up his own language called hadlhaj. Has its own grammar and syntax and everything. Dude's dedicated.

 

[DE4life]

A late evening ten count.

Amalee - Fake Wings (.hack//SIGN OST cover) - (2017 - OST)
Darkthrone - Grave With a View (1991 - Death Metal)
Dark Tranquillity - ThereIn (1999 - Melodic Death Metal)
Turisas - To Holmgard and Beyond (2007 - Folk Metal/Power Metal)
Hironobu Kageyama - Bokutachi Wa Tenshi Datta/We Were Angels (1993 - OST)
At The Gates - Forever Blind (1994 - Melodic Death Metal)
Ancestral - The Ancient Curse (2006 - Power Metal)
Nada Surf - Popular (1996 - Alt Rock)
Dark Tranquillity - Faithless By Default (2016 - Melodic Death Metal)
Metallica - Ride the Lightning (1984 - Heavy Metal)

 

[The Grayfox]

No Doubt - Don't Speak (1995 - Alt Rock)

I hate this song with a passion. It brings back memories of being in school with kids who had dyed black spiky hair who wore rainbow leg warmers and had 85 chains dangling from their person who thought listening to No Doubt made them edgy and alt. Makes me fucking shudder

Spiderwebs is up there too. In fact, just add No Doubt in general.

 

[DE4life]

I hate this song with a passion. It brings back memories of being in school with kids who had dyed black spiky hair who wore rainbow leg warmers and had 85 chains dangling from their person who thought listening to No Doubt made them edgy and alt. Makes me fucking shudder

Spiderwebs is up there too. In fact, just add No Doubt in general.

I think I would have heard this song maybe mid-2000s tbh, so some time after school... so no bad memories associated with it, I legit don't even remember this song at all from when I was a kid despite being released in 1995 and fairly popular at the time. Maybe more in the US than the UK, idk. I don't think I have any other No Doubt songs, just that one, so can't speak for any of their other material. Just one of those tracks I heard somewhere at some point and liked, although I honestly have no idea where or when I would have listened to it.

 

[The Grayfox]

It may have had something to do with the fact that No Doubt is from California, but then again, so are a ton of bands. In the mid-90s they were huge in my school. It could've definitely been more of a thing in the U.S in general. During those years, it was No Doubt, Bush, Creed, Smashing Pumpkins... I've blocked most of it out. Or tried to.

 

[DE4life]

I started high school in 1998, so I think the popular alternative bands had shifted a little. I don't know if Smashing Pumpkins or Bush were popular here, but Creed definitely were. Weathered in particular. Otherwise it was the nu-metal bands of the time - Korn, Slipknot, Limp Bizkit, Disturbed, Linkin Park, Deftones, POD... along with more indie/rock bands like Hoobastank, Feeder, Papa Roach, Lostprophets, NOFX, etc.

Meanwhile I was listening to in Flames, Dark Tranquillity, Soilwork, Arch Enemy, Metallica, Megadeth, Dream Evil, Freedom Call, Dragonforce, Rhapsody, and so on. Basically I was on an island unto myself insofar as music was concerned during my high school years. It was probably only around 2004-ish that the 'scene' started to catch up in regards to MDM/Melodic Metal/Metalcore in the UK, and I have no idea if it was popular in high schools - only that at rock nights in the clubs around here I was suddenly hearing the likes of Cloud Connected, Trigger, TQP, Rejection Role, Nemesis... which was really cool for me, having had nobody offline to share my musical tastes with. Suddenly some of my friends were getting into more of the metal I listened to, a lot of them bought Come Clarity and they wanted to come to gigs with me and attend festivals like Bloodstock and Download. I wouldn't have imagined that to be likely in 2001/2002 when anyone who heard me listening to In Flames was like "lmaooo what's that satanist music"

 

[The Grayfox]

Yeah, so we’re right around the same age. The No Doubt years were when I was in middle school or junior high (I honestly don’t know what you guys call it in the UK — secondary school? Let’s just say grades 6-8). In those days, I was part of a small clique of metalheads but we’re talking Maiden, Metallica, Slayer, stuff like that. By the time I got to high school, which was a year before you, I had already started finding the good stuff and very, very few people at my high school had. My best friend growing up (still today) and I would go to record stores in high school and salivate over all the amazing artwork on MDM albums and special order stuff without having any idea what it actually sounded like. In a high school of around 1500 kids, I’d say there were maybe 5 of us that even knew who bands like In Flames, At The Gates, Dark Tranquillity, etc. even were. There were definitely other people who listened to Metallica or Megadeth, but at that time, the underground scene was very, very much underground. We went to see Opeth and Nevermore in high school and I think there were like 100 people there? That’ll never happen at an Opeth show ever again unless it’s by design. And that was in a major city like San Francisco.

Nowadays it’s so much easier to discover new music because it’s at your fingertips. Back then, you needed to search it out. Find bands in magazines or browse record stores and hope you bought a good one based on the art or song titles. Definitely bought some duds that way, but also discovered bands I still listen to today. My friend bought HammerFall’s “Renegade” on a whim and we used to drive around in his car blasting the everloving shit out of that album. I’ll always look back fondly at those times. It was probably about the same timeframe here that things started becoming a bit more accessible and known. In 2004-2005, it would still be considered rare for me to see somebody wearing an In Flames shirt. But it definitely wasn’t rare to see Killswitch Engage, Lamb of God and other metalcore shirts around, so it definitely picked up steam around then.

 

[drawntoblack]

Unrelated to your discussion, I have just read that Mnemic are getting back together. This song was such a banger back in mid 2000s.

 

[The Grayfox]

The only songs I really remember from Mnemic are this one, Ghost and Deathbox. I heard Ghost on a compilation album in 2003 maybe? I was never a huge fan though. They remind me of if White Zombie and Fear Factory formed a tag team and played Meshuggah covers, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, I'm just not really into it.

 

[drawntoblack]

I was never super into it either because it lacks substance but there is a very palpable, thick atmosphere to it that I really enjoy. Same with early 2000s Soilwork albums, Strapping Young Lad of that era, Fear Factory as you mentioned, maybe even the debut Chimaira record. B tuning, tight groovy palm muted guitar parts that rarely evolve into proper riffs and keyboards/samples that add texture and atmosphere. It's unmistakable sound of that time. Stuff that came as the logical continuation of pushing nu-metal to the extremes but before generic metalcore arrived.

 

[Xpyro125]

Unrelated to your discussion, I have just read that Mnemic are getting back together. This song was such a banger back in mid 2000s.

Aside from the vocals, the best way I can describe what it sounds like to me is that it feels like if old Sevendust leaned into groove metal. It didn’t quite grip me, but I might give it a couple more listens and see if that changes.

 

[ThePhobiac]

Mnemic showed up on a few of my Pandora stations back in the day. Jack Vegas, Deathbox, Climbing Towards Stars, Elongated Sporadic Bursts, and Transcend are still in my Spotify.

 

[DE4life]

Some decent Finnish MDM - haven't listened to their earlier albums, but will probably give this album a spin. Very COB-influenced, which shouldn't be a surprise as the band was founded by the COB keyboard player. You can certainly hear that sound.

 

[The Grayfox]

Yeah, I think Warmen is an actual band now that Bodom is done. When Janne first started it, I think it was mostly an instrumental project, and then he started using guest vocalists. It's actually quite an old project by this point. The first album was in 2000 and basically sounded like instrumental CoB. I always thought the cover of Separate Ways on Japanese Hospitality was a high point.

 

[DE4life]

The albums seem to get pretty poor reviews on Encyclopaedia Metallum until the most recent one, which is a bit higher. With that said... the reviewers on that site aren't really a barometer for quality.

New Amaranthe album - meh/10
New Dragonfoce album - meh/10

Feels like both bands are just putting out music for the sake of putting out music now. Nothing wrong with that as such, but I'm not sure either band has released anything in the last 5-7 years which has added any value to their legacy or brand. It's not that either are putting out objectively bad music either, it's just music that doesn't really need to exist as they've both already been there and done it. Nothing new or interesting. But then, the likes of Slayer, Motorhead and hundreds of beloved thrash bands made long careers out of taking this trajectory so who am I to judge?

Enjoyed After Infinity's debut self-titled album. Nothing groundbreaking but solid and fun. Elettra Storm sounded nice in parts, but needs more focus. Overall decent album though. I also need to listen to Dreamtale's 2022 album Everlasting Flame as apparently it was very good. I have some of their early stuff but haven't listened to them in many years.

 

[DE4life]

Random fifteen for today, my first actual chill day in weeks...

Tristania - Ab Initio (Gothic Metal, 2007)
Arch Enemy - The Watcher (Melodic Death Metal, 2022)
Nobou Uematsu/FF7 Advent Children - Cloud Smiles (OST, 2005)
Nobou Uematsu/FF7 - Ahead On Our Way (OST, 1997)
The Dark Element - Get Out of My Head (Melodic Metal, 2019)
Lovebites - Today is the Day (Power Metal, 2020)
Callenish Circle - Beyond... (Melodic Death Metal, 1999)
KISS - Psycho Circus (Hard Rock, 1998)
Marc Hudson - Astralive (Power Metal, 2023)
Lovebites - Golden Destination (Power Metal, 2020)
Dark Tranquillity - Single Part of Two (Melodic Death Metal, 2002)
Dragonforce - Seasons (Power Metal, 2012)
Pet Shop Boys - It's a Sin (Pop, 1987)
Cristiano Filipinni's Flames of Heaven - Dying for Love (Power Metal, 2020)
Percival - Ghosts (Power Metal, 2021)

 

[Pallbearer]

Damn.

There was some Teams training seminar in my organization. I didn't personally attend, but someone I know did. She told me at some point one participant went to the bathroom and took his phone with him so he wouldn't miss anything. He positioned the phone on a shelf or some other surface and proceeded to relieve himself. Unbeknowst to him, the camera was turned on and it was directed right at, you guessed it, his private parts. In other words, the view was livestreamed to everyone in the attendance. At least for a brief moment, before someone actually yelled "HEY! YOUR BALLS CAN BE SEEN!" and the guy quickly readjusted the phone's position.

As much as I feel sorry for the guy and hope he'll get over it, I honestly don't know when I've laughed this much the previous time.

 

[DE4life]

Either a truly ultimate show of dominance or a total career killer. Not sure I could come back from that so if he does then fair play our laptops have a slider that can go over the camera, and I've literally always got it set in position just in case. With that said I doubt I'd ever take the laptop into the bathroom, and I don't have Teams on my phone so no risk there.

 

[Pallbearer]

Yeah hope he will be able to turn it into something to joke or even brag about. Going to take a lot of nerve of course.

I don’t even have a smartphone for a work phone so the only way to use Teams is by laptop. So as long as I don’t take the laptop into the bathroom or remove my pants in the office I should be ok.