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

[DE4life]

That may be the endgame, but they're some way from that at the moment. Still too much autonomous control amongst the population. I think they'll authorise universal credit if it benefits the long-term plan of increasing dependency and compliance - which it unquestionably will. First , strip people of their independence. Second, make them incapable of revolt. Third, impose authoritarian control on the weak - by this point the death of democracy won't be mourned, it will be celebrated.

Scarily, I think all three of the above are underway.

 

[eochaid]

In my opinion we are yet at that point. We are too dependent on our jobs and increasing artificial needs that no one is willing to revolt.

 

[eochaid]

 

[DE4life]

Glad I'm not a serious PC gamer. those guys seem to get fleeced on the regular. Granted many of them can afford to waste their money, but still. I do have a very high spec PC, but I'll be using that for 6 or 7 years now as is. Unlikely I'll be upgrading unless a part fails. In the past I've only had to replace faulty PSUs.

 

[Xpyro125]

@DE4life I’m not sure that it’ll tag you properly, but do you remember how I said it could be interesting seeing In Flames doing something with shoegaze? I think I’ve finally got a clearer example as to how that could go than Liberation, especially with something actually melodeath in nature instead of modern IF. It’ll never happen, but if Björn was to be stuck in the past in any sort of way, I’d love to hear something like this. Funny that it’s DT doing it so many years ago.

 

[Xpyro125]

And random aside, but I recently realized that In Broken Trust’s riff is halfway ripped from Weight of the End by DT. The effects on the guitars in IBT are super cool and help it to feel a bit fresh, but you can absolutely hear it.

 

[DE4life]

@DE4life I’m not sure that it’ll tag you properly, but do you remember how I said it could be interesting seeing In Flames doing something with shoegaze? I think I’ve finally got a clearer example as to how that could go than Liberation, especially with something actually melodeath in nature instead of modern IF. It’ll never happen, but if Björn was to be stuck in the past in any sort of way, I’d love to hear something like this. Funny that it’s DT doing it so many years ago.

Yeah that's a nice little instrumental track from DT. Has a bit of a Pink Floyd vibe to it, although who knows if that's what they were going for. We know all of the Swedish MDM bands have major love for 80s rock, pop and metal so it's certainly possible.

 

[DE4life]

And random aside, but I recently realized that In Broken Trust’s riff is halfway ripped from Weight of the End by DT. The effects on the guitars in IBT are super cool and help it to feel a bit fresh, but you can absolutely hear it.

There are quite a lot of 'tribute' riffs and melodies in THE tracks that callback to IF & DT. Since these guys were major parts of those bands it doesn't bother me, though.

 

[Xpyro125]

@DE4life Amaranthe released a new song that’s surprisingly good. It’s a 7/10 sort of good, but it feels power metal like their roots rather than a heavier, more watered down version of their pop metal sound. It’s really cool hearing that side of them again over the modern core-influenced side, even if the intentionally cheesy pop metal feel isn’t there— Though that’s long been dead anyways. Only thing else I can hope for is that they don’t use any more AI for their music videos.

 

[DE4life]

Hmmm yeah, that's a lot closer to their self-titled/Nexus sound than I've heard from them in a long time. As you say, it's nothing special - but feels like a shift back towards their earlier sound compared to recent efforts. It's pretty basic in a lot of respects - fairly simplistic riffs and keys, but it still got my head nodding along at points, which is a bonus. Based on this song I'd be interested in listening to their next full effort.

With that said, I can remember when they released "Viral" and "Archangel" as singles for Manifest and I was like, yo, I like both of those a lot.... then the album came out and there was basically nothing else there for me. Very disappointing, although I still very much enjoy both of those tracks.

 

[Xpyro125]

Hmmm yeah, that's a lot closer to their self-titled/Nexus sound than I've heard from them in a long time. As you say, it's nothing special - but feels like a shift back towards their earlier sound compared to recent efforts. It's pretty basic in a lot of respects - fairly simplistic riffs and keys, but it still got my head nodding along at points, which is a bonus. Based on this song I'd be interested in listening to their next full effort.

Considering that they actually didn’t use AI for the music video when it released, I might just be a bit interested too. I forgot that their new harsh vocalist vocalist sounds a ton like Henrik, so I genuinely thought he rejoined the band for a couple minutes. That being said, while it’s a safe, but good move for them, I’m going to miss how fun Henrik’s persona was— Particularly with the couple of songs he got (Not Boom!). They genuinely feel closer to Jake’s original vision to me than the other generically-written lyrics they have now. I think this song definitely feels better musically though, Olof feels like he’s starting to get back to his old self a little.

With that said, I can remember when they released "Viral" and "Archangel" as singles for Manifest and I was like, yo, I like both of those a lot.... then the album came out and there was basically nothing else there for me. Very disappointing, although I still very much enjoy both of those tracks.

Funnily enough, I was actually really disappointed with the singles. Angela Gossow came out of retirement just to do such a lackluster feature, and somehow Nils’ and Henrik’s version on the album seriously outdid it, even if I do love the idea of two different versions like that. Not much on Manifest actually stuck out to me, even if I feel like Viral’s music video and Manifest’s album art give a decently good feel/aesthetic. The only two songs that stuck with me were Boom! and Die and Wake Up. Boom! sucks. I know it’s tongue-in-cheek, but they did that way better on Fury and GG6. The one good thing about it is hearing Elize do a surprisingly cool growl, I’d genuinely love to hear her try doing harsh vocals if that’s already what she can pull off. Die and Wake Up is pretty awesome though, it almost feels like modernized nu metal in a way I actually really fuck with.

I still haven’t listened to The Catalyst. I don’t plan to. I get the feeling they’ll say the AI was “an artistic/aesthetic vision” or something even though it was most definitely out of label obligation, but… Y’all did vampire shit for Damnation Flame, the album’s aesthetic is very clearly not gothic, and the song wasn’t even good anyways.

But yeah, maybe this album’ll be alright. I’m currently predicting it to land just below Helix, but I can be happy if it’s just above. Definitely not touching the first four albums, that’s for sure.

 

[mindd]

I just can't, my mind automatically replaces "Destiny's Shadow" on @DE4life profile pic with "Destiny's Child" every time i notice it

Anyway, Gossow's obviously not returning as Arch Enemy's vocalist (she's still their manager, hence teasers on social media). Nor is Johan Liiva. Too bad, Burning Bridges is still my favorite AE record.

 

[DE4life]

Considering that they actually didn’t use AI for the music video when it released, I might just be a bit interested too. I forgot that their new harsh vocalist vocalist sounds a ton like Henrik, so I genuinely thought he rejoined the band for a couple minutes. That being said, while it’s a safe, but good move for them, I’m going to miss how fun Henrik’s persona was— Particularly with the couple of songs he got (Not Boom!). They genuinely feel closer to Jake’s original vision to me than the other generically-written lyrics they have now. I think this song definitely feels better musically though, Olof feels like he’s starting to get back to his old self a little.



Funnily enough, I was actually really disappointed with the singles. Angela Gossow came out of retirement just to do such a lackluster feature, and somehow Nils’ and Henrik’s version on the album seriously outdid it, even if I do love the idea of two different versions like that. Not much on Manifest actually stuck out to me, even if I feel like Viral’s music video and Manifest’s album art give a decently good feel/aesthetic. The only two songs that stuck with me were Boom! and Die and Wake Up. Boom! sucks. I know it’s tongue-in-cheek, but they did that way better on Fury and GG6. The one good thing about it is hearing Elize do a surprisingly cool growl, I’d genuinely love to hear her try doing harsh vocals if that’s already what she can pull off. Die and Wake Up is pretty awesome though, it almost feels like modernized nu metal in a way I actually really fuck with.

I still haven’t listened to The Catalyst. I don’t plan to. I get the feeling they’ll say the AI was “an artistic/aesthetic vision” or something even though it was most definitely out of label obligation, but… Y’all did vampire shit for Damnation Flame, the album’s aesthetic is very clearly not gothic, and the song wasn’t even good anyways.

But yeah, maybe this album’ll be alright. I’m currently predicting it to land just below Helix, but I can be happy if it’s just above. Definitely not touching the first four albums, that’s for sure.

I didn't like 'Do or Die' either, nor was I a fan of the other single they released... 'Strong', I think? But yeah, Viral and Archangel were tracks that I thought were a lot of fun in a typical Amaranthe pop-metal kind of way. The overall album turned out to be very meh, though, so that was a shame. I got nothing out of 'The Catalyst'. The whole thing was just boring to me, and I did listen to the whole album a couple of times before deciding it wasn't my style. The AI stuff didn't bother me, as if any band can get away with that it's Amaranthe - I just didn't vibe with the album at all.

As far as the new album is concerned, realistically I haven't enjoyed more than 30% of an Amaranthe album since Massive Addictive, which was twelve years ago. I hold little hope at this point for an album that will genuinely interest me again, but you never know.

 

[DE4life]

I just can't, my mind automatically replaces "Destiny's Shadow" on @DE4life profile pic with "Destiny's Child" every time i notice it

Anyway, Gossow's obviously not returning as Arch Enemy's vocalist (she's still their manager, hence teasers on social media). Nor is Johan Liiva. Too bad, Burning Bridges is still my favorite AE record.

Hah, well just for you I changed it no mistaking that for a pop group, my friend. I AM VENGEANCE.

 

[Xpyro125]

As far as the new album is concerned, realistically I haven't enjoyed more than 30% of an Amaranthe album since Massive Addictive, which was twelve years ago. I hold little hope at this point for an album that will genuinely interest me again, but you never know.

I absolutely hated Maximalism when it came out since I was all about serious and technical metal with great emphasis on harsh vocals, and I was pissed about Battles, so the party hard album just did not stand a chance for me. I’m glad I got into them right before Cyhra debuted Karma because that was one of the greatest times to be hyped for music for me, but yeah, I hated Maximalism at the time.

These days, I love it for the exact reasons I hated it. I’ve missed melody, I’ve missed fun music, I’ve missed creative niches. It’s not your intentional cheesy b-movie lyrics with a wink and a nod, but I do still feel like a similar spirit was there, particularly with Boomerang’s music video being heist thriller-themed. That’s actually pretty fitting, even if the blowing a kiss moment being speculated to be a jab towards Jake’s departure pissed me off back then.

Helix’s electronics were a massive downgrade, and I think them shifting towards more generic metal lyrics was a bad move, but I still really enjoy like half of the songs from it. The guitarwork is definitely better than on Maximalism, and the more power metal-styled songs provide a great flavor, so it’s a tradeoff overall. It’s definitely not as good of an album as the first four, but I think it’s still a big step up from Manifest and The Catalyst.

I don’t think I’ll ever be as interested in or hyped for anything they release in the future, but I can also have hope. I’m still bummed about Henrik’s departure since his persona and lyrics were really fun and tongue-in-cheek. It’s not the same brand of tongue-in-cheek, but it’s one I liked.