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

[DE4life]

Honestly, if the vocals weren’t shit, I’d probably move TPB up two or three slots. It’s definitely not as solid of a groove metal album as Stabbing the Drama, but it tries bringing back melodic leads and whatnot. There are some surprisingly cool sections in it, and it is overall good imo. Definitely not great, I even remember more of NBC more vividly, and I haven’t even listened to much of that album… But it is good imo.

I'd agree that instrumentally it was a step up from Sworn, without a doubt. Wichers did try to bring back the melodic leads that had gone missing, which was welcome. The vocals are definitely Speed's lowpoint though, and as noted previously, the production didn't do anything for me. In some ways similar to ASOP, although lyrically TPB was above what Anders wrote on ASOP.

I think if In Flames put out an actually good album instead of Battles in 2016, it would’ve been a great year for melodeath. Even though I haven’t gotten super into AtG, their album that year was actually really good, and Atoma showed a more revitalized DT too. AtG faded pretty fast, sure, but then coming back in 2014 definitely had to soften the blow of how bad things got by that point.

I haven’t listened to much of War Eternal, but I did like what I’ve heard of it. I don’t really care for much of Arch Enemy after that, but Alissa was absolutely the right person to take Angela’s spit as vocalist. I wish they’d use her clean vocals more, but I can’t expect AE to make the right decisions.

IF were just incapable at that time. I think Jesper's departure left a gaping hole in terms of MDM, and Bjorn didn't seem to have much in him around that timeframe. He should have leaned on Engelin more, and it's a shame he didn't.

I didn't mind War Eternal but it isn't one I go back to nowadays. For whatever reason Will to Power really clicked with me, even though it didn't for a lot of others. Granted most of what I like is in the first half of the album, and the second half isn't as good, but what I like I really like. The first four songs on the album (excluding the intro) are all fantastic MDM to my ears. Maybe a little too sickly sweet for some others at points. I agree on Alissa's cleans, it's unfortunate they don't use those more as she has a nice clean vocal style. I guess it's something both she and the band aren't particularly interested in exploring though.

It would have been ideal if something like Foregone, or some 2016 equivalent of it, would have come out after Siren Charms. Not to say Foregone is the answer to everyone's problems, but an aggressive album like that would have pleased fans who liked SOAPF but not SC, satisfied those of us who liked SC, and would have avoided the commercialized Californian arc entirely. It would have been a repeat of the R2R (newish sound) --> STYE (experimentation) --> CC (back on track) situation.

I can't really imagine a Foregone style album from 2016 IF. Their idea of heavy at the time was stuff like Everything's Gone and When The World Explodes, neither of which I like. If we assume they still went with Benson and then try to do a Foregone type of album, I think it ends up as a mess. The band and the producer didn't know each other very well, and it's not exactly Benson's forté. If Engelin had been allowed more involvement in songwriting then maybe it could have evolved into something interesting, but if it's primarily Bjorn I just don't think he had enough in the tank at that point to give us anything memorable. With that said, it's hard to imagine it would have been worse than Battles.

Their best period. While TCM is great, my favorite will always be APP, "Needlefeast" being my favorite song of theirs. Probably because I was discovering this whole genre at the time it came out. APP, together with Children of Bodom's Hatebreeder (and to a certain extent Norther's Dreams of Endless War) were my gateway drugs into the magic world of melodeath. Yeah, you could argue as to the genre classification of CoB and Norther, but to me it doesn't really matter. Melodic metal with harsh vocals?

NBC has the second best Soilwork song: "As We Speak". Fantastic verses, fantastic chorus and chilling lyrics. I think that's their last truly great album for me. FNF, STD and STAGD are ok, but it was obvious at this point they wanted to pursue a differenth path. Things started picking up for them with TRM again as far as I'm concerned, and although they're a different band today, they're still remain intriguing and relevant. Together with In Flames, Dark Tranquillity and At the Gates one of the Big Four of MDM, no doubt.

I came into MDM around the same time, but as I hadn't come from a metal background in any way it was tough for me to get into the thrashier stuff in the beginning. Albums like Clayman, Reroute and Natural Born Chaos were easier for me to digest at that time. Once I got used to the vocals then I could go back and appreciate the older stuff, but it took some time. I can remember even with Damage Done I struggled at first with the vocals. The music I really loved, but I'd never heard anything close to the extreme metal vocal style before. DD as an album had no cleans, either, whereas NBC and Reroute had a lot more cleans and catchier vocal melodies.

I never really got into Norther much, but Bodom from Hatebreeder through to Hate Crew Deathroll were fantastic. Needled 24/7 was the first Bodom song I heard and the melodic guitar & keyboards combined with the absolutely chaotic energy blew my young mind back then.