The Grand Conjuration

[gatedropper]

Just got back from St. Louis/Saguet STFU no, SOTU, yea, that's it.
The Grand Conjuration kicks ass live. I mean--- mean as hell over-the-top shit.
To have To Rid The Disease right before the new one really makes it stand out as one of their heaviest songs. That beginning is fucked up. Per did wonderful.

 

[Nairolf]

am i serious?......classical music far outweighs others in terms of composition, the devotion the performer needs to it, the difficulty and the expression involved. There is some other stuff that comes close though.

 

[Botfly]

I'd have to say jazz beats metal in the whole 'technical wankery' category.

 

[Profanity]

am i serious?......classical music far outweighs others in terms of composition, the devotion the performer needs to it, the difficulty and the expression involved. There is some other stuff that comes close though.

I'd say classical music is overated. Other genres i.e Metal show more devotion and expression in the music. The compositions are so hard to play, yet any good orchestra can play them. How many people would be able to perform Satriani's guirtar trickery?

 

[Shadows Skulk]

A single person writing a half hour long symphony for every instrument in a full orchestra is less impressive than Satriani's linear diarrhea guitar playing?

 

[Longinus]

You have to say though that profanity is right about expression and devotion. It's just people playing other people's music and naturally cant be as much devoted to the usic as the composers. I also find much more emotion in rock & metal than in classic, not to say that performing classical pieces allows no personal mistakes, no room for changes, everything is set - instruments have to sound the same everywhere. How is that music? Gimme prog 6 jazz over classical music anyday

 

[Brian]

who the hell says music has to have any emotion

Emo kids.

 

[Esoterik]

Few comments on the song that might alleviate some of the anxiety a few people are feeling...

First, obviously the rip takes away the depth and tone of everything in the song, so everything from the guitars to the vocals sounds weak/washed out/tinny. Obviously this isn't how the final product will sound, and the quality seems to take away a LOT from the song.

Second, everything is muddy cause of the quality of the rip. Throughout the song I can hear hints at amazing depth, melody, harmony, intricacies etc that are just lost in the rip. This is especially true of the whispered vocals part - that part sounds like it's gonna kill.

Third, if this is in fact a concept album, its very obvious how this song fits into the concept. The beginning of the song hints at the transition from the previous song, and although obviously I can't pinpoint what that transition will be, it reminds me a LOT of the transitions heard on Edge of Sanity's Crimson I and Crimson II. This song seems like one of the very heavy hard hitting songs of the album, so I think once the song is heard in the context of the album, it'll be appreciated significantly more.

 

[T-Rat]

true!
ever try to listen to an opera in English?

Scary? Not so much. Stupid? Very much so. By their logic, classical music should all be chucked in the can. I actually feel very sorry for them, and you can tell them so.

 

[Darkhammer]

Few comments on the song that might alleviate some of the anxiety a few people are feeling...

First, obviously the rip takes away the depth and tone of everything in the song, so everything from the guitars to the vocals sounds weak/washed out/tinny. Obviously this isn't how the final product will sound, and the quality seems to take away a LOT from the song.

Second, everything is muddy cause of the quality of the rip. Throughout the song I can hear hints at amazing depth, melody, harmony, intricacies etc that are just lost in the rip. This is especially true of the whispered vocals part - that part sounds like it's gonna kill.

Third, if this is in fact a concept album, its very obvious how this song fits into the concept. The beginning of the song hints at the transition from the previous song, and although obviously I can't pinpoint what that transition will be, it reminds me a LOT of the transitions heard on Edge of Sanity's Crimson I and Crimson II. This song seems like one of the very heavy hard hitting songs of the album, so I think once the song is heard in the context of the album, it'll be appreciated significantly more.

my head hurts

 

[deliverance]

Few comments on the song that might alleviate some of the anxiety a few people are feeling...

First, obviously the rip takes away the depth and tone of everything in the song, so everything from the guitars to the vocals sounds weak/washed out/tinny. Obviously this isn't how the final product will sound, and the quality seems to take away a LOT from the song.

Second, everything is muddy cause of the quality of the rip. Throughout the song I can hear hints at amazing depth, melody, harmony, intricacies etc that are just lost in the rip. This is especially true of the whispered vocals part - that part sounds like it's gonna kill.

Third, if this is in fact a concept album, its very obvious how this song fits into the concept. The beginning of the song hints at the transition from the previous song, and although obviously I can't pinpoint what that transition will be, it reminds me a LOT of the transitions heard on Edge of Sanity's Crimson I and Crimson II. This song seems like one of the very heavy hard hitting songs of the album, so I think once the song is heard in the context of the album, it'll be appreciated significantly more.

agreed about the song quality distracting people from the song in it's pure form. i've heard it live, and it fuckin slays. can't wait to hear the mp3 opeth.com puts up.

but, it was confirmed the album is not a full on concept record.

 

[Brains for breakfast]

but, it was confirmed the album is not a full on concept record.

it isn't? this whole concept/non-concept thing is begining to confuse the hell out of me. Can't Mike make it clear what it will be?

 

[Forest of Åsatrú]

Really! Last I heard it was a concept album. People just need to quit speculating and just listen when it comes out and make their own judgements. This gossip shit is leading to an Opeth forum cataclysm!

 

[The Dude]

I am gagging to hear TGC live now.


This is NOT an invitation for people to send me a bootleg of it.
I repeat NOT. In no way do I endorse anyone to PM me if they can send me a bootleg.

 

[deliverance]

it isn't? this whole concept/non-concept thing is begining to confuse the hell out of me. Can't Mike make it clear what it will be?

...he did. i asked him personally. he said "ehhh, not really. there is a general similar theme, but its NOT a concept"

 

[TehLeperAffinity]

Well I guess everybody must be braindead:

I wanted to write like an occult kind of concept story.

but I started with this idea of a concept, and that was like a red thread, if you know what I mean, throughout the story: that there is some occult undertone in it.

 

[Metalloid]

i think the song sounds pretty cool. and where is this news about the stream on the 19th?

by the way, to the guy who said "another band bites the dust"....you are an idiot for judging the downfall of a band based on a shitty rip of ONE song off of the new album.

 

[Korlich]

That is definitely not a word in english, methings you meant to say encapsulates, no?

Well I´m like Shakespear I make up my own words.

As someone else said "Atonement" will be the best song on GR I can feel it...

 

[deathbearer]

This is nothing personal, but I'm not feeling the new Opeth track The Grand Conjuration.
For one, the song is somewhat repetitive, generic and bland. The keyboards replace Opeth's acoustic interludes but fail to bring on a sense of brutality or melancholy atmoshpere. The riffs about 2:00 into the song are reminiscant of nu/rap metal and very repititive.
4:18 into Grand Conjuration the song becomes listenable with more complex riffs and chord progresions but never really takes off or gives me a sense of direction, cohension, melancholy emotion or utter doom/death brutality.
For the first 3:00 of Grand Conjuration the drums sound awfully trigerred. Perhaps a drum machine? The keyboards are overused and sound like a third rate cross between Dimmu Borgir or your average nu/black/industrial metal.
I don't like the production on this track; the production on Opeth's Grand Conjuration sounds almost nu metal, almost industrial metal.
The new Opeth track is saturated with keyboards, but not in the atmospheric sensibility.
Mike's vocals are always great, specifically his death growls, but as wonderful as Mike's clean vocals are, they sound over processed.
I miss Steven Wilson's (Porcupine Tree's) production expertise, as I'll take Steven Wilson's production over the production on The Grand Conjuration.
The only way I would recognize this as an Opeth track is through Mike Akerfeldt's death growls, wich are orgasm inducing. The ripp on this track does not do Mike's vocals justice.
Despite the complaints that in the past Opeth wrote in a cut and paste style, the Grand Conjuration is just not a well written track, for whatever Opeth are trying to achieve with this song.
Gone are the juxstaposition of soft/mellow and heavy brutal, with emotional, beautiful acoustic interludes that Opeth are internationally aclaimed for.
I'm all for Opeth experimenting and trying something new and different, and groundbreaking, but within this radical change of sound, it seems that Opeth are missing the unique identity and emotional, brutality, and progressive tendencies that endear them to so many worldwide.
I hate to say this because up to now, I could listen to any Opeth track three or four times in a row over 10;00, 12;00, 20;00. The Grand Conjuration, being so repititive, but missing the progression, time changes, and brutal to soft juxtaposition, as this 9:55 track could cut be cut in half and no one would notice.
I'm somewhat upset, and I don't know what to say..I'll listen to the rest of Ghost Revelries, but I feel like I've been jilted by a lover, cheated, I just want to cry.
Some people might LIKE this track, as Grand Conjuration sounds like Tool with a good death metal vocalist. Opeth's more mainstream/streamlined musical approach in the Grand Conjuration could win over more trendy fans but lose long time extreme metal heads/fans in the translation.

 

[T-Rat]

i think we need to wait for the album!
and now there's a counter on the site! 50 days...