rant

[diso]

I find there are a few different types of people concerning music. The rare ones who don't listen at all but more commonly there are people who listen as part of another activity, they enjoy music but don't really pay that much attention to it. Then there are the people who absolutely adore music, scrutinize every moment of their favourite tracks, and relentlessly buy/download new music to find that next great fix. I've recently switched from a passive listener to an aggressive consumer. This obsession really coincided when I decided to collect albums or maybe the obsession forced me to start collecting albums. I ripped all my cd's onto my harddrive and downloaded good ones that I had lost. At that time I was mostly into metallica and alice in chains, never listening to any swedish metal really. Then came In Flames, I enjoyed them so much I quickly had all their albums and essentially considered them to be the greatest band ever. I started downloaded swedish (scand.) metal ravenously, arch enemy, soilwork, meshuggah, atg, emperor entombed. I didn't think that these bands had the same quality consistently that I found in In Flames, I had a bit of opeth but it initially didn't stick. Then my friend sent me april ethereal and after the riff at 6:00 I was finished. I downloaded all their albums and then decided started buying them all because I didn't trust the rips to be of good enough quality. Essentially thats where I'm at now, I listen to opeth a good 4 hours a day and spend another couple listening trying different new stuff or listening to old gems. I'm seriously considering dropping an immense amount of money to get a really good speaker/amp setup.

New DT is an amazing album
really like the first 2 songs of prometheus, but the rest seems a little too hectic, putting more time into it tho
new haunted seems promising
trying out various katatonia and porcupine tree stuff
trying to find sörskogen
surfacing and august and everything after are great pop albums

what new stuff has blown your mind?

 

[DemonOfTheFall]

You just described practically the exact same way I discovered Opeth. I too had a progression of Metallica, to In Flames, to Opeth.

Right now I'd say I'm still relistening to: Katatonia, Soilwork, Amon Amarth, Amorphis, and the lighter Lacuna Coil (I'm not sure how popular they are on these forums, but I like them, despite anybody else's opinions). To be honest, I'm trying to fully educate myself on Pantera's stuff, I've always listened to them, but hardly with an undivided ear. And as a guitar player, they have some bad ass jams I want to learn, so I'm working on it.

I know exactly what excitement you have about new music, I went through exactly the same thing. New music comes, and great music you'll still find new, but nothing beats Opeth. I've listened to Opeth for about three years now, and trust me, nobody, not anybody beats Opeth. Opeth are the gods, they are the perfection of musical inspiration.

If you want to find another way to listen to music (compared to your mention of casual listeners to aggressive listeners), I recommend picking up a guitar. Only then will you truly understand what good music. You have to be able to feel it flow through your fingers to get just a jist of what the artist is trying to express through the speaker.

Btw, this is my 69th post .

 

[everandasaturday]

I was pretty casual up until about January last year, then I discovered Tool...loved them, which lead me on to King Crimson...which in some way lead me on to Opeth... I'd had an mp3 of The Drapery Falls for months, but it never really hit me...then as my tastes expanded I started listening to all these random mp3s I had...then came Opeth Needless to say I loved it.

I've been playing bass a bit longer than I've had this obsession with music, and it definitely does make you realise the quality of a lot of stuff...you can pick out the little pieces of songs that you probably wouldn't hear if you didn't play an instrument. So a lot of stuff gains a lot more listens.

I'm at the stage now though, where I'm like a musical parasite...I sink my teeth into something, suck it of all it's life, and move onto the next tastey morsels...

Current things spinning on the stereo: Deliverance, Blackwater Park, King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King, Isis - Oceanic, pretty normal stuff actually...oh, bit of Jeff Buckley too...

 

[Static]

My friends amaze me constantly. This one friend I have is an absolute maniac when it comes to music. He talks to you while listening to a song and says 'Wait for it, right here, OMFG did you even expect that transition!?!? Amazing!!! This is the best music, wait...listen to this bit...dun dun dunnn, booom!! WOWOWO amazing!!' etc. etc. etc.

I listen to a helluva lot of music but I have never had the kind of obsession over it that he has...I seriously think he could have some twisted form of orgasm over the stuff. The only thing is he listens to so many bands that I...well...consider to be not so good. I can only imagine his reaction if I were to actually get him in Opeth.

*sigh*

 

[Bleakest Harvest]

He talks to you while listening to a song and says 'Wait for it, right here, OMFG did you even expect that transition!?!? Amazing!!! This is the best music, wait...listen to this bit...dun dun dunnn, booom!! WOWOWO amazing!!' etc. etc. etc.

That sounds like the way I am sometimes to people! I might have just gotten some cool album that i'm eager to get my friends to listen to, so i stick it on and sort of 'talk them through' it, haha.

Yes, I am a music obsessive. My life revolves around the discovering, listening to and analysis of music. :Rock:

 

[diso]

"I recommend picking up a guitar. Only then will you truly understand what good music."

Oh I do play guitar, it makes someone extremely biased against poorly written music. What really blows my mind is if I hear something that makes me think I would have never thought to play that in a thousand years.

 

[squarenothing66]

I started listening to music "agressively" as you have said, after I discovered Nirvana. This was 4 or 5 years ago. They really opened up my world, and since then, I've been open to just about every type of music, minus the pop-ass-shit-Brittany-Spears-and-nsync-bullshit. That, and I've become less and less tolerant of nu-metal, which I am thankful for.

 

[Morfiend]

I listen to music constantly but I don't dissect each song or anything, I don't even read the lyrics that much.

--

 

[Morgour]

yeah me to, im always looking for that perfect moment in music.

 

[Hopkins-WitchfinderGeneral]

Picking up a guitar might teach you about guitar music. I doubt it'll give you much insight into the world of saxophone playing tho.

 

[DemonOfTheFall]

Picking up a guitar might teach you about guitar music. I doubt it'll give you much insight into the world of saxophone playing tho.

That is certainly true. But picking up a guitar lead me to creating a band. I've been in a bout four bands now, and after these experiences, you understand and appreciate music a lot more. Being in a band you discover the uses of bass and drums (from a guitarist view), somewhere you wouldn't have been if you didn't pick up guitar in the first place. I don't play drums (or bass as a primary instrument), but I understand their uses and complexities because of my experiences in bands.

So though playing guitar doesn't make you a musical master, it does give you a much closer understanding of music (especially metal since it's the leading instrument) than if you wouldn't have played guitar in the first place. And how many saxophones do you hear in metal music? The saxophone's a fine instrument, but this isn't exactly a forum where we're discussing the complexity of Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews, or John Coltrane, now is it?

Oh and the whole walking your friends through music, I do that all the time, just did it last night. I've fully converted three of my close friends to Opeth, and another three have been introduced and are listening. I spread the gospel whenever I get the chance and to people who are deserving enough to hear it ...

 

[Chaos Incarnate]

I had the same progression as diso and DemonOfTheFall, Metallica-> In Flames-> Opeth.

Metallica got me into metal. In Flames made me appreciate growls in vocals. I started playing guitar after listening to Metallica and In Flames and about a year later I heard some opeth and it just blew my mind that you could make stuff so discordant by itself sound like an amazing song.

 

[murderedbysound]

gee..it seems like yesterday that i was listening to Slipknot, Mudvayne, Coal Chamber, American Headcharge and all the other USELESS bands out there.

i had been searching for new music preferbably heavy fuckin metal. on to mp3.com and found Carnal Forge. downloaded Pull The Trigger and I Smell Like Death. i loved the songs and ran out and bought the cd. i saw were they were from and was like *woah* sweden...

so my freind was like theres a band from Finland you should try, Children of Bodom... i was hooked to European music from that day on. of course there was the Metallica age but i dont rely on them anymore or should i say as much.

then the flood gates opened and my tastes were quikly expanding picking up Opeth, Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree, Green Carnation, Kalmah, Skyfire, Sinergy and a slew of others.

im also not very kind to nu metal cause of its lack of creativity and generic sound. out of all this i have found 5 american bands that i have liked and thats it...Iced Earth, Cannibal Corpse, Dream Theater, Liquid Tension and OSI.

edit: i know that DT is american..there just a band that has opened my eyes alot recently.