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

[Moonshield_]

I'm patiently waiting for my Time Package to pop in the mail.

Today a coworker came to me showing me with excitement he already had access to Time II thanks to a leak but I didn't want to spoil the experience myself before the high quality files are mine

Vinyl comes next, along with the repress of the Soilwork double album originally from 2013 and to be released as a repress on Sept 6 (so it delays a bit the arriving of the Wintersun vinyl)

Is better than the new DT album?

 

[The Grayfox]

I'm downloading the Time Package right now, can't wait to go through all the extras. It really is a fantastic album.

 

[Moonshield_]

Beautiful album indeed, weird drum sound and not as epic as the rest of the discography though but still very impressive.

The Forest Season Loud & Modern is insane. So amazingly superior to the original version when listening through good headphones.

 

[The Grayfox]

A lot of people don't like the drums. I'm ok with it. It's just a very modern metal production. It's really snappy and I think people probably prefer the warmth of a natural drum sound. They're definitely triggered to high hell to the point where it doesn't even sound like Kai played versus a drum machine, but I still find it to be ok.

 

[Moonshield_]

You said it all, I'm already getting used to it.

 

[drawntoblack]

along with the repress of the Soilwork double album originally from 2013 and to be released as a repress on Sept 6

That double album (and the EP with leftover tracks) is top notch, good choice. Can't believe its already been over ten years since it came out.

I downloaded Wintersun and I'll check it out out of curiosity but extreme power metal is really not my thing.

 

[DE4life]

Well, according to Maenpaa it's actually "Extreme Majestic Technical Epic Melodic Metal", lol.

 

[Moonshield_]

I downloaded Wintersun and I'll check it out out of curiosity but extreme power metal is really not my thing.

Hope you'll come back here to give your opinion about the music but also the production which is a divisive subject hehe.

 

[drawntoblack]

Well, according to Maenpaa it's actually "Extreme Majestic Technical Epic Melodic Metal", lol.

If you join his patreon he lets you call it power metal

Hope you'll come back here to give your opinion about the music but also the production which is a divisive subject hehe.

Sure regarding the production. Honestly I don't have the willpower to analyze the music itself, I'm sure it's very competently written and arranged. If I can allow myself to be petty in advance, my gripe with Wintersun is when they take a single melody and drag it out for 4 minutes through every single possible harmony, modulation, variation etc. It feels like going through a pre-flight checklist instead of experiencing a genuine good idea.
But regardless of taste and whether the music is for me, I'll never say Jari is a poor composer.

I can only imagine what's it like to work on finishing a 20 year old record while being inadvertently exposed to a bunch of revolving fads and genres that all rub off on you. Metalcore, deathcore, djent all came and went while he was working on it. And with his social media messing around with djent tunings and whatnot you can tell he wants to dip his toes in so much. He desperately needs a co-writing partner who will reign him in and bring much needed focus. It's almost a shame that that kind of talent is wasted to poor workflow and organization.

 

[Moonshield_]

So cool to be able to listen to the new Wintersun and the new DT the same month.

I wish the new Ensiferum was released in August too

 

[The Grayfox]

I've always thought of Wintersun as a melodic death metal / power metal hybrid. People love to put tags on it, mana metal, whatever, but at the end of the day, its the aforementioned sub-genres that stand out to me most and I think they're the best descriptors. That being said, Wintersun is not for everyone and I think most Wintersun fans know that. I've loved Wintersun since the very first album came out in '04, which to be honest is a much different album than the Time saga or The Forest Seasons. I think a lot of the gripes that people have about Wintersun musically are the same complaints I have about a band like Tool. I don't mind long drawn out musical passages, in fact I quite enjoy them because it gives me more time with a song, but when Tool does it, it bores me to death. When Wintersun does it, I'm transfixed. To me, their music is a perfect blend of aggression and pure beauty. I have never heard a song as beautiful as Loneliness, for instance. It's very similar to the way people see Opeth, it's divisive for sure.

I take it all in stride. Most of the fan base knows how ridiculous Jari is. We all lean into it and make fun of it just as much as people who hate Wintersun. I seriously doubt Jari will ever have a writing partner, even though he could probably benefit from it. I think his music is so dear to him that he couldn't possibly let go of that control. I only wish he wasn't such a perfectionist so that more frequent music could be made. Then again, when I listen to an album like Time II, it's really hard for me to argue with his process.

 

[drawntoblack]

So, new Wintersun. Awesome music.

Drums sound like shit.

 

[The Grayfox]

I must be listening to a different version because I still don't hear what people are saying about "plastic sounding drums." The drum mix doesn't bother me at all.

 

[Moonshield_]

During the first listening I felt exaclty the same as @drawntoblack, now it doesn't bother me anymore.

Orchestration isolated tracks are wonderful, so I made Time I & II orcherstral versions and it's awesome

 

[drawntoblack]

I must be listening to a different version because I still don't hear what people are saying about "plastic sounding drums." The drum mix doesn't bother me at all.

Snare is way too compressed, in fact I can't think of a band/album I've heard with tinier sounding snare. It sounds almost like a kick drum, flat and one dimensional.

 

[The Grayfox]

I think it suits the songs, I just listened to the drum stem for One with the Shadows and I've definitely heard drums that are mixed worse than that, but it's all down to preference I guess. According to Jari, this was always his vision for how the Time saga should sound, which is why he also remixed Time I to sound the same. I think it's a nice full sound. I'm sure in the coming months there will be remixed versions all over YouTube. There are also two different dynamic versions included which some people have said sound better to them.

 

[DE4life]

I came across this the other day and thought it was pretty cool. I got the album a while ago, but I'd never seen any music videos as typically they are pretty boring. I really like what they did with this one though. It's nice that they tell a story, and the animation is very nice as well. I also think the song is great, but it's going to be a question of whether you enjoy power metal or not, as it's PM all the way. It's what I'd expect a Western anime to look like in terms of design and music. It's not copying the Japanese style in any notable way, but thematically it's similar in a lot of respects.

 

[Moonshield_]

It was geat to see them perform live at Hellfest 2022 but I can't really listen to a whole album from this band without being bored.

 

[DE4life]

It was geat to see them perform live at Hellfest 2022 but I can't really listen to a whole album from this band without being bored.

I'm kind of the same way. From their most recent album I love Wasteland Warrior Hoots Patrol, Fife Eternal, Sword Lord of the Goblin Horde and Keeper of the Celestial Flame of Abernethy - the rest, eh... not so much. The other songs are still quite okay, but there isn't a great deal of variety across the album, so typically I'm going to gravitate to what I consider the best songs and kind of discard the rest. I guess that's fine though, there's a lot of bands where that's the case for me.

When you saw them did they have their previous singer? Can't remember when he left. I actually had kind of a similar reaction to the new album he put out as well - 3 or 4 songs I thought were really good, then the rest still perfectly competent but not that interesting.

 

[Moonshield_]

I think it was a new singer yes, italian guy if I remember well...?