Novembers Doom... why not more love from the Opethian faithful?

They've gone downhill, and I really didn't find the need to listen to their last couple albums more than 2 or 3 times. They're not bad, just not particularly innovative and lacking all the distinctive sound of their earlier stuff. It comes across as too much of a edge of sanity kind of sound and is almost completely lacking what was so special about the previous albums, which was the incredibly lush guitar harmonies.. The Knowing and To Welcome the Fade are two of the best metal albums I've ever heard, the album before the Knowing is also very good, The Pale Haunt Departure is average, the follow-up to that is pretty meh.

Anyone who was underwhelmed by Pale Haunt Departure should still check out To Welcome the Fade imo. The difference in musical interest for me is like night and day. There's so much more going on with To Welcome the Fade. The first songs I'd recommend someone checks out would be Broken, Silent Tomorrow, and probably The Lifeless Silhouette. My personal favorite on TWTF is Torn, but that has tons of female vocals and is pretty much disowned by everyone currently in the band as being too gay or something.
 
Opeth > ND
Missing the Point > You.

What Lateralus said. Who wants to listen to similiar bands just for the sake that they are similiar.
Personally, I'm a huge Nevermore fan. If I was reading a review and the reviewer said, "Band X shares a lot of common ground with Nevermore, but has their own voice", I'd be sure to check them out.

I'm not saying that Novembers Doom aren't any good - but I don't think they are as quite 'top shelf', if you get what I mean. It's good enough, but at this point I only really want stuff that really excites me.
Fair enough.

Zod
 
i tried out novembers doom on iTunes but the 30s snippets didn't really grab my attention. i would need to listen to some full songs to find out if i really like them. "Empathy's Greed" isn't bad, but i'm not yet convinced.

(btw. i have that problem with 30s snippets with many bands ... often it's just not enough to decide whether i like the music or not)
 
Nice to see you back here btw, Zod. You should stick around and post a bit more. :)
Thanks Bro.

i tried out novembers doom on iTunes but the 30s snippets didn't really grab my attention. i would need to listen to some full songs to find out if i really like them. "Empathy's Greed" isn't bad, but i'm not yet convinced.
The link in my first post, has a high quality rip of a full song. Give it a listen.

Hey Zod, good to see you post here. Ever got around to checking out some Mezarkabul or Pentagram?
No... but they're on my list (yes... I'm such a dork, I actually have a list :loco:).

Zod
 
I used to listen to Pale Haunt Departure but the newer stuff doesn't seem just as stirring to me. And I especially can't stand the vocals, they are kind of mixed with cookie monster sounds :erk:
 
I used to listen to Pale Haunt Departure but the newer stuff doesn't seem just as stirring to me. And I especially can't stand the vocals, they are kind of mixed with cookie monster sounds :erk:
I find that surprising... but to each his own. Personally, I look at Mikael and Paul as being the two best at what they do. But hey... there's no rhyme or reason as to why a vocalist resonates with one person, but not another.

Zod
 
The lyrics are what kill November's Doom for me, also it's rare that they have a standout riff or solo, it all just melds together into some boring doomy sounding riff that Opeth might have considered using as filler but eventually just threw in the shitter for it to be later salvaged by bands like this.
 
I listen to ND on occasion... but they're really quite doom metal-ish and I have to be in a certain mood (really pissed off or really tired and slow) for their slow and often actively unhappy sounding music. Opeth has a song for every mood and they do it better. I do like and even on a bad day respect ND even if Opeth wins out overall on many counts... but I feel they make a narrower range of music than Opeth
 
I used to listen to Pale Haunt Departure but the newer stuff doesn't seem just as stirring to me. And I especially can't stand the vocals, they are kind of mixed with cookie monster sounds :erk:

Wtf? Paul has the fantastic growls that are actually very decipherable IMO.

Novembers Doom is a fantastic band, love it all but the last couple records are far better than the earlier albums.