Notable releases to come 2014

[theoden236]

Where/when can I procure new Nasheim?

His Bandcamp Page

 

[Hell Mike]

Where/when can I procure new Nasheim?

release date is on friday so by then all kinds of quality art dealerz

 

[Krilons Resa]

 

[Krilons Resa]

http://dephosphorus.bandcamp.com/album/ravenous-solemnity

 

[Krilons Resa]

Some new "Stoom" from Aleph Null.

http://alephnull.bandcamp.com/album/nocturnal

 

[Reign in Acai]

So far, 2014 is off to a nice start.

Behemoth - The Satanist: I know they don't get a lot of love around here, but their new album is fantastic. It's hard to find a review on this that isn't glowing. They no longer sound like a Black Metal band, a Death Metal band, or some combination thereof. They simply sound like Behemoth and very comfortable in their own skin. Hands down their finest moment.

Aye, they killed it. I must attest this is some blood pumping metal. Nergal and his forehead have regained my respect. This is the first offering from a semi big band in awhile that makes me want to go out and see them perform their tunes live. (I've seen em' before, but was too damn drunk to remember a damn thing. Which is pretty much the case for every performance Ive seen.)

Only other two '14 albums Ive heard are from Innsmouth and Grahn, both rule. 2014 is shaping up nicely. I'll check out everything else you mentioned Gregory. Though new Iced Earth doesnt sound too promising based off the one track I heard.

 

[einride]

there is a new "mayhem" song



oh wait, this is "notable releases to come 2014", not "post videos of butt trash garbage". wrong thread, sorry.

 

[MFJ]

dude i heard that song for the first time about an hour ago. soooooo terrible. "butt trash garbage" would be a step up from this shit

edit: and can i please say that hellhammer is an awful drummer?

 

[General Zod]

Aye, they killed it. I must attest this is some blood pumping metal. Nergal and his forehead have regained my respect. This is the first offering from a semi big band in awhile that makes me want to go out and see them perform their tunes live. (I've seen em' before, but was too damn drunk to remember a damn thing. Which is pretty much the case for every performance Ive seen.)

Admittedly, I'm somewhat curious to see how this album is received here. I think what they've created is quite exceptional.

I would highly recommend seeing them if you get the chance. I think they're a truly exceptional live band.

Only other two '14 albums Ive heard are from Innsmouth and Grahn, both rule. 2014 is shaping up nicely. I'll check out everything else you mentioned Gregory. Though new Iced Earth doesnt sound too promising based off the one track I heard.

Assuming you can get past the fact that Stu is channeling Barlow throughout his entire performance, it's a very enjoyable album. Not great, but the change in producers has given this album a really enjoyable feel to it.

 

[Reign in Acai]

Admittedly, I'm somewhat curious to see how this album is received here. I think what they've created is quite exceptional.

I'll never badmouth this band again. I hope Nergal shtoops a hundred more Euro models. Work playlist for the past few hours has been, Zos Kia Cultus, Thelema.6, and Satanica.

 

[einride]

i listened to a song off the new behemoth and the music was ok but it was unlistenable because of garbage dr5 brickwall mastering

Dukvajvdjvehsjelrjosnxkho

 

[General Zod]

i listened to a song off the new behemoth and the music was ok but it was unlistenable because of garbage dr5 brickwall mastering

I saw someone else mention the dr5 thing as well. Care to explain what that is?

Side note: The single is hardly the best song on this album. If you can get passed the mastering, it's quite a good listen.

 

[Agalloch]

I saw someone else mention the dr5 thing as well. Care to explain what that is?

Side note: The single is hardly the best song on this album. If you can get passed the mastering, it's quite a good listen.

dr5 means the dynamic range is a 5. A dynamic album can go up to 15. Bad ones are usually 7 or below. Bad mastering is the worst plague on music presently, even worse than bad music itself.

 

[einride]

dr5 means the dynamic range is a 5. A dynamic album can go up to 15. Bad ones are usually 7 or below. Bad mastering is the worst plague on music presently, even worse than bad music itself.

this

it basically means the dynamics have been crushed so much that nothing has any impact any more. the music turns into a continous noisy carpet of sound where the softest clean guitar note is the same volume as a thundering bass drum or crash cymbal, everything is fatiguing and terrible, bass response suffers greatly, the mix turns into mud, transients disappear, and the waveform looks like ███████████████████████████████

i'm not trying to be a snob or anything but i can literally not listen to most music (especially metal) that gets released these days because it all sounds really, really, really terrible to a point where i can't get through full songs

the best thing is all of this destruction of music is done for absolutely no reason; it is objectively worse and destructive in every way compared to keeping some semblance of dynamics, but like so much else in the world, the objectively wrong thing keeps on being done and done again anyway because "that's what everyone else does"

some day we will look back on 2000-2015 or so and cringe so fucking hard at how we completely ruined our music

and they will re-release all these albums in versions made from dynamic masters and get y'all to pay $15 each for them again


currently, the only cure for the disease if you absolutely want to buy modern metal albums is to get vinyl, because it's physically impossible to make masters THAT bad and have them even function right mechanically on vinyl discs

and this right here is why people think vinyl sounds better

not because of any inherent superiority in the format -- in fact, cd is objectively better than vinyl -- but because vinyl masters are far less destroyed out of necessity

 

[General Zod]

First off, thanks to both of you for those answers. Two follow-up questions if I may...

1. Is there some easy way to measure the dynamic range of an album? Or is it just something you're estimating based on your own knowledge of the recording process and a finely tuned ear?
2. Is there a record player you would recommend or a price range that you need to be in for a quality record player?

Thanks.

 

[Hell Mike]

First off, thanks to both of you for those answers. Two follow-up questions if I may...

1. Is there some easy way to measure the dynamic range of an album? Or is it just something you're estimating based on your own knowledge of the recording process and a finely tuned ear?
2. Is there a record player you would recommend or a price range that you need to be in for a quality record player?

Thanks.

From a dude that knows pretty little and gives few fucks but still agrees with the above:

1:

all kinds of websites and/or graphic equalizers show this when playing the music. If everything is at max all the time, max isn't really a level.

2:
IN MY OPINION, a cheap but new one is decent for non-audiophiles that don't listen to vinyls all the time. You get the benefits of outsmarting the loudness wars for cheap, but the wear on the records is a bit worse because the head is unnecessarily heavily balanced and I'm beering. Old good ones by non-caring folk are often worn and new audiophile stuff is hella expensive, but on the other hand, if you buy a good turntable with the possibility to change needle and pickup every X years, you're pretty much set from there on.

 

[Krilons Resa]

Zod, you can utilize this program: http://www.kvraudio.com/product/tt_dynamic_range_meter_by_pleasurize_music_foundation

Or you can utilize Audacity to view the actual .wav file see the peaks, etc. ala Mike's post.

 

[einride]

i have a pretty crappy turntable as i don't honestly listen to a lot of vinyl but you may want to read some articles at metal-fi about choosing a good but no-frills record player:

http://www.metal-fi.com/how-to-buy-and-use-a-real-turntable/
http://www.metal-fi.com/turn-u-turn/

metal-fi overall is a good site to read, it reviews metal from an audio nerd perspective and audio equipment from a metal nerd's perspective

also, yes, install the TT dynamics meter if you're curious about how records measure up. be aware that the DR value does not tell the whole story, though. also check http://www.dr.loudness-war.info/ for a decent searchable database of dr values for different albums

---

i guess this is a good place to post my favourite example (again) of how squashing of dynamics can TOTALLY ruin what might otherwise be a good mix:



no, that's not youtube compression, this is what the cd actually sounds like. when it's this bad, i think anyone with reasonably functional ears should be able to hear the effect. listen to the cymbals, they're almost completely white noise, everything is loud all the time. the bass is just an almost-there, squashed rumble. i can barely listen to this on low volume without getting a headache, and it's impossible to turn up (and i don't think i need to explain how counter-productive and stupid it is to make a thrash metal album about beer drinking that you can't really turn up)

 

[NAD]

Fuck volume wars. So god damn lame.

I get it for, and don't give a shit about, pop radio hits. Who cares about that, it's a product for people to have on in the background. It sounds abysmal, but the target market doesn't care, and everybody knows that louder = "better" because more people hear the loud shit above the low rumble of their dull and tasteless lives.

But for underground bands of any sort, I don't get it.

 

[Vittra]

i only briefly glanced at this articles (intend to read in full later), but i believe those turntables all require a separate purchase for a rpm changer yes? otherwise need to move the belt manually. not a huge deal, but i always found that a bit frustrating about the "entry" level audiophile territory of record players, considering their price