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

[ThePhobiac]

Really enjoyed that. Felt like a good fusion of their old style and their post-Watershed proggy style.

 

[eochaid]

I'm a big fan till Dleiverance (included). Since them, the music always seemd (to me) forced more than inspired.

 

[mindd]

For me the peak was Still Life - Ghost Reveries. I really like Watershed too, but it was a bit weirder.

I'm not a big fan of Orchid/Morningrise, but it has been a while since I've listened to either.

My Arms, Your Hearse is good, but it didn't quite click for me, might have to relisten to that too. Fun fact - that record was co-produced by our boy Anders Friden.

Heritage - ICV all not my cup of tea. I'd rather listen to Jethro Tull or Yes if I'm in a mood for lighter prog, even if it's not one of my favorite genres.

 

[The Grayfox]

I remember when Ghost Reveries came out and people were calling Opeth sellouts. I still think its one of their best albums.

 

[eochaid]

My absolute favourite one is Blackwater Park.

 

[The Grayfox]

Yeah, I would say Blackwater Park is up there for me. It's a very good, very dark album. The first time I heard the title track, I was amazed.

 

[Cronopio]

For some reason, Deliverance is an album I'd very much like to have on vinyl. And I don't even have a grammophone. The outro from the title track still gives me chills.

 

[DE4life]

New Fellowship album is out November 22nd:

FELLOWSHIP – The Skies Above Eternity Album Out In November

Fellowship will release the new album The Skies Above Eternity on November 22 through Scarlet Records. Fellowship was the absolute power metal revelation of 2022 with their magnificent debut album The Saberlight Chronicles; after successfully bringing their positive vibes live in Europe and...

bravewords.com

The Sabrelight Chronicles was one of the best pure Power Metal albums in the last decade, for me at least, so I'm really interested to see how they follow it up. I tend to be disappointed with follow ups to albums I really enjoyed, so I'll remain cautious until I hear what they've come up with this time.

 

[Cronopio]

I'm stoked for that one too.

 

[drawntoblack]

To piggy-back onto Opeth convo.

When I was younger and super into discovering new metal, Opeth was too proggy and convoluted for my liking and I remember enjoying bands like Edge of Sanity a lot more. EoS was as proggy and riff salady but didn't take itself too seriously. Nowadays I actually enjoy those things about Opeth but my personal energy for sad/melancholic music is super limited and I can't listen to that stuff too much.

I put Opeth into the same drawer I put Devin Townsend - I'll happily watch legit music theory nerds dissect their stuff and break it down on youtube for hours if I stumble upon it, I'll watch Devin's podcast monologues also for hours but when I listen to their actual music there is very little time before I get super burnt out of it. Not to be mistaken with getting bored.

The only albums I've spent serious time with were Damnation, which is super digestible and enjoyable regardless of my mood, and Watershed. Obviously I recognize that Watershed is not exactly the band's peak but there is something about that album that makes it super cohesive when you listen to it from start to finish, think Reroute to Remain basically. I listened to it frequently when it came out for some reason.

 

[DE4life]

This is certainly... something, lmao. Not a bad idea to have Heafy guest on cleans rather than harsh vocals. I'd rather THE had done it that way around as well. Pretty sick guitarwork anyway. @Xpyro125 you're a fan of Japanese bands, no? Have you heard of these guys? Apparently they were going under the name of Gyze until last year.

 

[Xpyro125]

I’ve listened to a few Japanese bands, but too many. Nothing super wacky or weeb-ish, anyways.

I’ve heard of Gyze (And about the name change), but I never actually listened to them. No idea why even though I should, so I’ll listen to this after my shift’s done.

 

[The Grayfox]

That was something indeed. With how ridiculous that whole video is, somehow the thing I find funniest is that they cut in a random Trivium performance for Matt’s parts.

 

[Xpyro125]

This is certainly... something, lmao. Not a bad idea to have Heafy guest on cleans rather than harsh vocals. I'd rather THE had done it that way around as well. Pretty sick guitarwork anyway. @Xpyro125 you're a fan of Japanese bands, no? Have you heard of these guys? Apparently they were going under the name of Gyze until last year.

Huge power metal feel, which admittedly isn’t much of my thing. I’m rather specific with what kind of and how much of power metal I like, and at the very least I do like the more melodic kind this one seems to draw from, it results in rather traditional, almost folk-y melodies here. Blut im Auge by Equilibrium does a similar sort of thing, though I’m quite a bit more partial to that.

The main part gets old really quickly, and by that I mean before the bridge even starts. The bridge and solo parts are fantastic though, I wholeheartedly enjoyed those. I do also need to say that I enjoyed Heafy’s vocals here, but it doesn’t really make the main part something I want to listen to again.

I think for Japanese bands, Idolator and Mozaiq era Blood Stain Child are my biggest jam. Mystic Your Heart is far and away their best album, but I don’t go back to it quite as much as the other two. Isolator’s rather safe and non-technical Gothenburg melodeath, but with trance synths that genuinely give it its own identity. Mozaiq dials the trance and EDM influences up to 9 (Not to 11, that would be Epsilon, and I don’t like it), primarily due to the guitarist/composer, Ryu pretty much falling out of love with metal. Even with the main vocalist changing from Ryo to Sadew, it’s surprisingly great, and there’s only one bad thing I can say about it: Ryu also does the clean vocals. And they’re some of the worst vocals I’ve ever heard. Acquired taste much like Anders, sure, even I’ve grown to sort of enjoy them (But not really), but they make Anders’ singing sound like Stanne’s in comparison. Ryu also does some clean vocals on Idolator, but it’s not nearly as much, and somehow they’re actually incredibly more tolerable there. It’s even more fucked because Sadew can sing— He sings on the closing track (And in his old art rock band, Karmachain, RIP that band), and his clean vocals sound pretty fucking great, at least in comparison to Ryu.

I have way more I can say about the band, but I’ll just leave you with that much for now. Just don’t listen to the new double album, both sides fucking suck, man.

 

[DE4life]

I’ve listened to a few Japanese bands, but too many. Nothing super wacky or weeb-ish, anyways.

I’ve heard of Gyze (And about the name change), but I never actually listened to them. No idea why even though I should, so I’ll listen to this after my shift’s done.

Well, I listened to some of their 2013 album and whilst the guitarwork is alright, the vocals are... quite bad. Drumming is fantastic though. Overall pretty average. Seems like they've improved in most aspects since then.

That was something indeed. With how ridiculous that whole video is, somehow the thing I find funniest is that they cut in a random Trivium performance for Matt’s parts.

It's weird on multiple levels. At first I didn't realise it was Heafy, I thought it was a Buddhist monk or something randomly doing vocals at first, lmao. Gotta be honest, whilst bald works for some guys, it doesn't work for Heafy. Lack of facial hair maybe playing a part. Dude just looks strange. But yeah, why show him clearly singing different words to the song in the video, and why show all of Trivium? I could understand some shots where Heafy isn't singing and it's just a close up of him, but just splicing in footage from a Trivium show seemingly at random is pretty bizarre.

Heafy apparently produced the album, so one assumes this was his choice. Maybe he wanted to promote Trivium at the same time, lol.

 

[DE4life]

Huge power metal feel, which admittedly isn’t much of my thing. I’m rather specific with what kind of and how much of power metal I like, and at the very least I do like the more melodic kind this one seems to draw from, it results in rather traditional, almost folk-y melodies here. Blut im Auge by Equilibrium does a similar sort of thing, though I’m quite a bit more partial to that.

The main part gets old really quickly, and by that I mean before the bridge even starts. The bridge and solo parts are fantastic though, I wholeheartedly enjoyed those. I do also need to say that I enjoyed Heafy’s vocals here, but it doesn’t really make the main part something I want to listen to again.

I think most Japanese MDM takes the melodic part more seriously than the death metal part. Having listened to a lot of PM, Ryujin ain't it. It's a bit like when people claim Bodom is 'extreme power metal'. No, they just place a big emphasis on the melodic part of melodic death. Melodic doesn't = power metal, although PM is obviously a genre that typically deals with sweet, pop-laden melodies.

I agree that there's a bit too much repetition in the song. Could easily be cut down to 4/5 min and nothing of value would be lost. It would benefit from being trimmed and tightened up for sure.

Ryu also does the clean vocals. And they’re some of the worst vocals I’ve ever heard. Acquired taste much like Anders, sure, even I’ve grown to sort of enjoy them (But not really), but they make Anders’ singing sound like Stanne’s in comparison. Ryu also does some clean vocals on Idolator, but it’s not nearly as much, and somehow they’re actually incredibly more tolerable there. It’s even more fucked because Sadew can sing— He sings on the closing track (And in his old art rock band, Karmachain, RIP that band), and his clean vocals sound pretty fucking great, at least in comparison to Ryu.

Honestly I find a lot of male Japanese metal singers to be tolerable at best, but typically really bad. Moreso when they are trying to sing in English. It just very rarely sounds good. I do like that most of them use the higher pitched scream compared to the metalcore growl you hear most American and European bands doing these days, though, as I much prefer that style of extreme vocal. I find the lower growl boring af for the most part.

As far as BSC are concerned, yeah, I don't mind them. Quite an interesting and eclectic back catalogue, but at least it's interesting to compare albums. I often wonder if they meant to call themselves Blood Stained Child though, as Blood Stain Child doesn't make much sense grammatically.

 

[The Grayfox]

It's weird on multiple levels. At first I didn't realise it was Heafy, I thought it was a Buddhist monk or something randomly doing vocals at first, lmao. Gotta be honest, whilst bald works for some guys, it doesn't work for Heafy. Lack of facial hair maybe playing a part. Dude just looks strange. But yeah, why show him clearly singing different words to the song in the video, and why show all of Trivium? I could understand some shots where Heafy isn't singing and it's just a close up of him, but just splicing in footage from a Trivium show seemingly at random is pretty bizarre.

Heafy apparently produced the album, so one assumes this was his choice. Maybe he wanted to promote Trivium at the same time, lol.

Heafy shaved his head because he was balding, but I do agree that he looks strange. I think it's the ears. If he grew a beard, it might be better.

 

[DE4life]

A beard would help for sure, as he has a naturally youthful face which never works well with balding, as it makes the person look like a giant baby. The ears are definitely a factor too.

With that said, I've seen other photos of bald Heafy and he looked alright. The video just seems to show him in a really unflattering light, for some reason.

He actually posted a message on X last year saying he shaved his head because he thought he was balding, but he isn't, and suggesting he might grow his hair back. He obviously hasn't done that so maybe he was just making a weird joke? Idk. I feel for him though as I'd be the same, bald wouldn't suit me at all.

 

[The Grayfox]

I'll never look at Matt Heafy again without thinking he looks like a giant baby.

I mean, if he wasn't balding, I don't know what the hell happened, because it certainly looks like he was. Even with his head shaved, you can see his hairline sometimes and it's definitely receding. No shame, it's not something you can control. But if he must shave his head, he should really at least grow a sweet mustache.

You can see it thinning and receding here as well. Also, yeah, he really is a strange looking guy. Dude straight up looks like a monkey right here.

 

[DE4life]

Aside from bald baby Matt and music in general, I bought a new PC today. The PSVR2 came on sale recently for £350 so I got it. I actually got a PS5 in late 2022 anticipating buying the headset when it was released, but it was so fucking expensive (£600) and had few games and no backwards compatibility, so I ended up giving it a miss. Finally it's at a price point I'm more comfortable with, so the PS5 will finally have the cobwebs dusted off.

However, Sony also announced that the PSVR2 would be compatible with PCs. That's pretty cool, as I have a ton of PCVR games. Only problem was my 7 year old PC with a GTX 1070 wasn't going to cut it. Below minimum specs sadly.

So, I've now bought a new PC as well I was due an upgrade tbh, so it's fine, but man... expensive these days. When I got my PC in 2017 (which was also for VR, specifically the Oculus Rift) it was like, £850 with the aforementioned GTX 1070 and an at-the-time recent i7 processor. Nowadays the cost is for sure a lot steeper. More than double, lol, but oh well. Specs should tide me over for someyears to come regardless:

Ryzen 7 7800x3D (supposedly the best CPU for VR)
GeForce 4070 Ti Super
32GB RAM
More USB A, USB C, DisplayPort, and other connections than I can comprehend
Some ASUS B650 gaming motherboard... I don't know much about these really
Said fuck off to all the fancy lights and liquid cooling... don't give a shit about that. Just give me a good old air cooler and a decent case and that'll do.

Nonetheless, when all is said and done, I expect it to be a great VR machine now and some time into the future. My bank account is in pain today though.