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

[Xpyro125]

God, being a Hundredth fan feels like riding a horrible fucking rollercoaster. I don’t know if anyone else has listened to them, but they originally did hardcore (technically melodic hardcore, but who’s counting), which was pretty cool, then in 2017 they straight up disowned their entire discography and shifted completely to shoegaze with RARE, one of my favorite albums of all time (Though that had to have been super awkward for fans at core and punk shows getting bait and switched), then they shifted to new wave that was definitely not just the vocalist’s side project but in the main band, which was fucking boring as shit, and now they have guitars again with some British-style indie rock. I don’t think it’s great, the lyrics just straight up don’t make sense, but I’m so glad they’re back to playing rock again. Aside from Ultrarare and a few singles, new wave just does not work for them, I was genuinely about to give up on the band. I don’t think I’ll be buying the new single, and I’m cautious about the new album, but I’m happy that they’re finally not making utter dogshit anymore. I’ll send the lead singles of each period since they epitomize everything pretty much perfectly.

 

[ThePhobiac]

@Xpyro125 - Never heard of Hundredth, but I actually quite liked "Neurotic." I'm a fan of that dreamy sound for sure. Reminds me a bit of mid-90's punk/emo.

 

[Xpyro125]

I’d absolutely recommend something like Only Shallow by My Bloody Valentine then. The entirety of Loveless is considered to be the quintessential shoegaze album, though I try to recommend other stuff in addition to it. RARE’s absolutely my modern classic, but nothing else on the album gets quite as ‘harsh’ as Neurotic. Slowdive’s the other band of the big two for shoegaze, though they’re far more softer-sounding, with Sugar for the Pill being my personal favorite of theirs.

Funnily enough with the emo and punk thing, a lot of punk artists end up drifting towards shoegaze later on in their careers. Zero Day is a pretty great song from Nothing, whose frontman used to do punk music until he went to prison. Alexisonfire ended up unofficially dipping their toes in the sound on Otherness (Blue Spade would be my recommendation there). Deafheaven’s the mainstream pick for blackgaze, especially for Sunbather, though they made a bunch of standard shoegaze with Infinite Granite. Sometimes by Chrome Waves is a pretty nice niche shoegaze pick, and Try Not to Destroy Everything You Love by An Autumn for Crippled Children is an especially unknown blackgaze song. And of course, Vore by Sleep Token is my favorite song from that band for its sort of blackgaze feel, and I wish the band did more like it— I bring that up in particular because I discovered it and the band as a whole through Tanner’s cover of it on IG. The drumming from II and in Tanner’s cover of Vore are absolutely insane, and I’m so glad I found it.
Edit: Forgot to mention something like Figure You Out by Citizen for more of the emo side of shoegaze.

But that sort of artsy wall of sound with the guitars is exactly why I wish In Flames would do it. Shoegaze is a guitar-focused sound with vocals quite a bit lower in the mix, In Flames has been a guitar-focused band (When they’re good) who people wish had vocals far lower in the mix. Sure, melodic death metal and shoegaze would be a little tough to marry, but it’s certainly possible, and I think 2011 Björn 100% could’ve done it. It’ll never happen now, but what a hell of a world it’d be if it did. In Flames is getting late into their career much like all the aging hardcore punk and post-hardcore artists who have gotten into it, after all.

 

[DE4life]

This band seems to have taken the In Flames approach of constantly changing their sound - how's it worked out for them in terms of general popularity?

 

[Xpyro125]

I’m not really sure what the second site is tracking (Maybe monthly streams?), but I can’t really get a good mental image of how it really did. I can’t find sales or actual Spotify streaming numbers since they changed shit on their site on PC, so that’s fucked.
RARE was super popular and beloved (Not by a good part of the old fanbase, but it was a radical shift) in 2017 though, and that makes sense to me because 2017 was pretty much a fucking renaissance for shoegaze. The big two released their first albums since the 90s, with Slowdive releasing their self-titled and My Bloody Valentine releasing mbv. Other big bands, like Ride, released Weather Diaries, Citizen released Youth, and Title Fight had their last hurrah, so they were pretty much at the peak of their popularity.

Part of me wants to say that the album after, Somewhere Nowhere, was far less successful, but that’s a bit of projection there, but I’d attribute the fewer numbers on the YouTube side of things to Hundredth going independent for that album. In truth, I think they had lightning in a bottle with how good RARE is and with the timing of its release. It was exactly where the culture was at the time, and had either one of those things not been the case, I’m pretty sure that the numbers would be a downward arc for them. I’m not sure if they would’ve had as many fans stay with a follow-up or not had it stayed shoegaze, but even as soon as 2018 it was clear that they weren’t going to. Funny thing is though, while Ultrarare was new wave, it’s actually good because of the strength of RARE’s compositions, while Somewhere Nowhere just isn’t. I’m definitely worried about the new album, particularly since the lyrics are so nothing, but I can’t deny that even RARE’s lyrics were never that great— Aside from Youth and Departure, I think those ones are fantastic lyrically.

 

[drawntoblack]

New Killswitch is out.

 

[Moonshield_]

Hell yeah, on repeat since yesterday. Big nostalgia with this band and I realize I haven't paid attention to the last two albums so now I have 3 albums from them to enjoy

 

[The Grayfox]

I've found this record to be their best in a long time. It's relatively short and to the point, but there's great hooks, no filler and it's heavy. I'm quite enjoying this one.