Thoughts on Spectral?

[Gadlor]

Well, unfortunately, it's sold out by now - and rather hard to acquire 700 dollar plane tickets to the darn thing. It's not actually the festival that is expensive, it's the getting there.

Plus, I might be studying abroad my junior year (as I told the ever-awesome Andreas as he gave me the solo - tres awesome, btw) - and Europe is my first choice obviously. It's only a hop, skip, and a thingy away to Sweden from basically any point in Europe - they have trains all over the freakin' place.

I think I'll remember the day I graduated better, because after suffering for about 15 years here in BigotedUglyDinkytownUSA I am certainly ready to get out of that high school and move on to a place where I am hopefully not surrounded by people who don't believe in evolution.

 

[Kirurgisti]

I don't think really awesome guitar leads necessarily are replaced by clean vocals. Some bands may do that, but that is just that band. Kalmah's song The Third The Magical has crazy leads and a giant chorus of Pekka Kokko's singing clean. Besides, it's not like they're added everywhere - it's one small touch, in one song. I wouldn't mind a few songs with some parts sung clean, either. The Duskfall's song Frailty is also pretty awesome for some random clean parts on an otherwise all-growled album.

It seems like Henrik is more comfortable with his distorted voice, and I can't see Skyfire going the way of Soilwork and In Flames - they're not exactly as commercially successful or renowned. However, it's not like it's our decision what to do with the music. They write the stuff: we're just along for a very awesome ride.

I'm not saying that clean vocals necessarily replace guitar melodies when they're added. I just gave some good examples. You didn't see what In Flames was to become when they started to add the clean vocals everywhere on Clayman, did you? And they weren't that well-known way back then. But look at IF now...there are annoying whining everywhere and the the stuff tastes so commercial. And that Kalmah's song...the chorus is so ugly sounding and forced that it ruins the whole song. I can't listen to that goddamn song because of that chorus! That's also one reason why I don't like when growlers try and "sing" clean vocals by force. It simply sounds shitty. And The Duskfall has never got any strong melodies, so I don't give a damn if they have clean vocals or not. So do you now understand why I am being so worried about the whole "clean vocals in melo-death" thing?

And to that guy who called me paranoid and picky... I have heard some of Imperanon...didn't really impress me. And those clean vocals are sung by guests? Man, that's a totally different thing. I'm talking here about how the lead growlers of the bands change their style into clean singing and how the clean vocals have many times replaced the guitar melodies. That has nothing to do with some woman guests singing power vocals in one band's song. And usually melodic death metal bands don't sacrifice their guitar melodies for clean vocals on their first album, because they have enough riffs to play. It's a totally different thing after a couple of albums when the ideas for riffs are running out...

 

[Final_Vision]

I'm not saying that clean vocals necessarily replace guitar melodies when they're added. I just gave some good examples. You didn't see what In Flames was to become when they started to add the clean vocals everywhere on Clayman, did you? And they weren't that well-known way back then. But look at IF now...there are annoying whining everywhere and the the stuff tastes so commercial. And that Kalmah's song...the chorus is so ugly sounding and forced that it ruins the whole song. I can't listen to that goddamn song because of that chorus! That's also one reason why I don't like when growlers try and "sing" clean vocals by force. It simply sounds shitty. And The Duskfall has never got any strong melodies, so I don't give a damn if they have clean vocals or not. So do you now understand why I am being so worried about the whole "clean vocals in melo-death" thing?

And to that guy who called me paranoid and picky... I have heard some of Imperanon...didn't really impress me. And those clean vocals are sung by guests? Man, that's a totally different thing. I'm talking here about how the lead growlers of the bands change their style into clean singing and how the clean vocals have many times replaced the guitar melodies. That has nothing to do with some woman guests singing power vocals in one band's song. And usually melodic death metal bands don't sacrifice their guitar melodies for clean vocals on their first album, because they have enough riffs to play. It's totally different thing after a couple of albums when the ideas for riffs are running out...

There was a guest on that Duskfall disc as well (p.s The Duskfall pwns you x10). However, you were saying guitar melody gets replaced by clean vocals. That happens but it doesn't HAVE to happen. That bit in Shadow Creator is right on top of a beautiful guitar harmony. With little touches like that I don't think you have much to worry about and the whole backing track on that song fit well and didn't sound forced whatsoever. So quit worrying and enjoy Spectral for what it is man, just a damn good album .

 

[Kirurgisti]

So quit worrying and enjoy Spectral for what it is man, just a damn good album .

I am trying. Nah, I don't seriously even think that Skyfire would become something nu-metallish like Soilwork and In Flames... at least in near future. But there's always that little change. And that little yell on 'Shadow Creator'... I wouldn't call it "clean vocals" in any way. I don't even think that the yell was anything special, I paid more attention to the melody in the background. 'Spectral'...After several listenings I still don't like it Well...you can't please everyone I think.

 

[-iLluSiON-]

What's wrong with a little experimentation?


PS: I hate the direction soilwork and in flames went... but it's still music, it's still something I can listen to. a little disappointing but, oh well, what you gonna do. there's 400,000,000 in flames wannabe bands in the states anyway.

 

[SergeantD1]

Well if my opinion means anything, I think SPECTRAL is your best album to date!! I am a HUGE fan of the melodic death genre and I eat it up like candy so I basically like every death album of this sort coming out of Sweden & Finland. However there are some bands that I hold higher than others and prior to Spectral I bunched Skyfire in the "average" melodic death category with many other bands. I of course own both TD & MR but there was nothing in my opinion that was all that special. I must admit that it has certainly changed with the release of Spectral. I think the melodies and song structures are top notch.

It's funny because I have noticed that most diehard Skyfire fans prefer the earlier albums but average fans like Spectral best. I have read 2 other reviews recently that say Skyfire finally hit the mark with Spectral. Whatever works right?

 

[froosch]

Yeah, I gotta agree with the last post on a lot of points. I do prefer the older stuff, but yeah, there does seem to be a split there. Some people are looking for different things, and the two older albums are definately different from Specral, so I guess it's a matter of what you value most in a melodic death album.

 

[Final_Vision]

I think in a lot of ways Spectral is a more mature album than MR. MR they started playing a bit more with proggy structures and expanding the sound beyond the heavy keyboards. Spectral seems kinda like a conglomeration of everything they've done so far. Everything sounds very solid in it. Skyfire does a really good job of not being just "melodic death" because the structures are way more complex. Add in lots of black metal blast beats and they break away from a lot of pigeon holes like "CoB clone" or "gothenburg band" etc.