We Are The Void

[Cronopio]

Guess the font doesn't support the letters Å, Ä and Ö.

 

[La Rocque]

Did not receive my WatV from CM/USA as of today(US release date), did receive a double lovely email from them saying my sheeeet is on its way.
This is the first time that I pre ordered from CM that I did not receive my order 10 days to 2 weeks before the official release date. Why ask why?
I was at Best Buy when it opened today, to get the new Jimi Hendrix CD(Valleys of Neptune)
BB has a CD/tshirt combo, 2 per store. I got one as I was walking away someone else grabbed the other.
BB only had the WatV CD/DVD with the bonus tracks.
I also stopped at Sam Goody, the only had one copy of the basic CD
they had several of the CD/DVD combo. So I bought the basic disc, have a couple of the CD/DVD w/tshirt coming my way.

Will listen to WatV later tonight when I can give it my full attention -
:Smokin:

 

[Zach.Zhang]

... and encoding is fucked up; I do DTP somewhat and familiar with the issue, but it's just AARGHHH!!!

What does that mean ?

 

[plintus]

Making Of is fucking hilarious

What does that mean ?

Brдndstrцm.

it's like once I was looking at Simplified Chinese characters, and those were actual garbage, but looked like the real deal. I like to think I can differ those now

Guess the font doesn't support the letters Å, Ä and Ö.

Which is strange, you know =/

 

[Defiance]

I think the bonus DVD of the digi is quite useless, everything is old stuff with the exception of the 'making of' video (which is very funny hehe). I wonder why we didn't get wallpapers or anything like that, those came with the ltd. of Ficition.

Can Niklas please give us some wallpapers of the new album? Preferably of the booklet art, which is brilliant, especially the last one (ohhh city on fire ).

 

[Erik Erna]

Well, I got my pre-order shirt combo.

Inside was a letter saying due to a busy tour schedule, they were unable to get the books signed in time for the order. However, it says they will be shipping the autographed booklet the week of 3/15, ironically the same day I am going to see them.

 

[Naglfar]

FYI it's on iTunes now (as of March 9th).

For those of you who buy digital, like me.

Listening to it as I type this. =) Very Haven-ish on first impression (yay).

 

[Defiance]

More comments on the album:

I think that, in general, the album is good. I don't love it like stizzleomnibus does, and I don't hate like anita_job does. I believe that it's not DT's best, even if for some it's the best since Projector.

I think the band really needs to work on the riffs because with some exceptions (Shadow in Our Blood, Dream Oblvion and Her Silent Language), the riffs are essentially the same throughout the entire album. And I don't like that, and for me it's worse when you see that all those riffs are with the damn 'riff-pause-riff-pause' rhythm (chugging?). It's certainly a nice rhythm and it sounded great on Terminus, but the band overdid this time, and IMO it's a plague present in the entire album.

I'm trying to be as objective as possible since DT is my favourite band, and with such talented guitarists as Niklas and Martin H. (who, I noticed, cut his hair), it's sad to see that their talent is not been fully used.

The keyboards are excellent, simply brilliant. Yet the band is relying too much on the keyboards, and when doing so undermining the guitars.

Mikael's vocals are great, it's amazing how he keeps improving every time (then again, we're used to that ).

Daniel's bass playing is great, although some solos (I don't remember any now) would be nice.

Anders's playing is excellent, his lines are much more complex than on Fiction (which, as you know, has a very 'old-school' drumming style). I noticed more variations in the playing, which is great!

Overall, I'd give the album an 80/100. This score can obviously change, though I'm pretty sure it'd stay in the 80s.

Cheers!

 

[stizzleomnibus]

I think the band really needs to work on the riffs because with some exceptions (Shadow in Our Blood, Dream Oblvion and Her Silent Language), the riffs are essentially the same throughout the entire album. And I don't like that, and for me it's worse when you see that all those riffs are with the damn 'riff-pause-riff-pause' rhythm (chugging?). It's certainly a nice rhythm and it sounded great on Terminus, but the band overdid this time, and IMO it's a plague present in the entire album.

I don't think it's a matter of "needing to work on riffs." In a world of virtuoso, in your face metal guitarists, I find the cooperative, musical guitar work here refreshing.

Not to reignite the "chugging" debate, but those riffs are incredibly complex (The Fatalist), woven wonderfully in with the rest of the instruments (The Grandest Accusation), and used for incredible and unique effect (I Am the Void).

I'm trying to be as objective as possible since DT is my favourite band, and with such talented guitarists as Niklas and Martin H. (who, I noticed, cut his hair), it's sad to see that their talent is not been fully used.

You realize those two do a lot (maybe most, I'm not sure) of the writing? If they're under-utilized, it's got a lot to do with their musical decisions. Two of Niklas' tracks, Inside the Particle Storm and Iridium, come to mind. Neither one has awesome riffs, but excellent full-bodied compositions loaded with power.

Two incredible guitarists choosing to put the music ahead of showmanship really says something about them as artists.

The keyboards are excellent, simply brilliant. Yet the band is relying too much on the keyboards, and when doing so undermining the guitars.

It could be said that this album lacks some aggression for this reason. It's different, but I think you'll come around.

Anders's playing is excellent, his lines are much more complex than on Fiction (which, as you know, has a very 'old-school' drumming style). I noticed more variations in the playing, which is great!

Hmm, I find them simpler than Fiction. Definitely simpler than the insane breakdown in Empty Me. Like other instruments, there's a much greater focus on cooperation here. As usual, more on the complexity of this work in the other thread...

Overall, I'd give the album an 80/100. This score can obviously change, though I'm pretty sure it'd stay in the 80s.

This had better be a special DT-only scale, whose '0' is roughly around 99 on the main musical scale.

Don't make me come down there.

 

[Naglfar]

I guess I've given it like 3 or 4 listens now, so this is my opinion, and I don't pretend to know anything about writing music...

I think it's the most interesting album the band has produced since Haven. I've complained that I can't always tell the difference between Damage Done / Character / Fiction (other than I like Character the least of the three by a fair margin), We Are The Void is a pretty fun album to listen to. I love the electronic / synth sound the band has employed heavily on this album. It's almost, I dare say, an industrial album, which to me is one of the few nearly dead / dead genres of rock and roll that did not deserve to wither away.

I don't think that DT has really relied on more traditionally... technical?... guitarwork since the Gallery. It has its charm. What I'm not super enthused about in their last four albums is the over reliance, perhaps, of the rat-tat-tat-tat drumming for some stretches. Especially in opening tracks. If you look at the last four albums, with the exception of Final Resistance, the opening tracks are eerily similar for long stretches, and it's just that the drumming is not that interesting. I think the drumming on WATV is pretty good as the album goes on, but one thing that improved my impression of this album was not starting on the opening track. It's a juvenile thing to do if you want to give the artist an honest impression of their album. But I didn't give Fiction a chance at first because I heard the first track, told myself "I'll listen to this later," and didn't end up throwing the album on my playlist again for over a month. Which I regretted, because it is a very good album.

At any rate, I'm a big fan of the electronic / synth sound they've developed. I can think of plenty of bands (here's looking at you, Samael and Paradise Lost) that absolutely destroyed their own sound with electronic music. To DTs credit, from Haven and on they really found a way to make the keyboards kick ass for them. I'm highly appreciate of this, because I think right now it's one of the things that is unique about the band's music.

 

[Defiance]

I don't think it's a matter of "needing to work on riffs." In a world of virtuoso, in your face metal guitarists, I find the cooperative, musical guitar work here refreshing.

Not to reignite the "chugging" debate, but those riffs are incredibly complex (The Fatalist), woven wonderfully in with the rest of the instruments (The Grandest Accusation), and used for incredible and unique effect (I Am the Void).


You realize those two do a lot (maybe most, I'm not sure) of the writing? If they're under-utilized, it's got a lot to do with their musical decisions. Two of Niklas' tracks, Inside the Particle Storm and Iridium, come to mind. Neither one has awesome riffs, but excellent full-bodied compositions loaded with power.

Two incredible guitarists choosing to put the music ahead of showmanship really says something about them as artists.

It could be said that this album lacks some aggression for this reason. It's different, but I think you'll come around.


Hmm, I find them simpler than Fiction. Definitely simpler than the insane breakdown in Empty Me. Like other instruments, there's a much greater focus on cooperation here. As usual, more on the complexity of this work in the other thread...


This had better be a special DT-only scale, whose '0' is roughly around 99 on the main musical scale.

Don't make me come down there.

Haha well I still disagree with what you said, but I've got to listen to the album more closely. The problem is that I'm without earphones so I can't use my iPod .


You come down here and we'll have an awesome musical discussion!

 

[Defiance]

I really like 'My Grandest Accusation', especially the kind of Oriental mood that the keyboards have. The guitars are quite good at parts too.

EDIT:

And the drums are certainly more complex than on Fiction, there're a lot more tempo/rhythm changes.

 

[La Rocque]

Well, I got my pre-order shirt combo.

Inside was a letter saying due to a busy tour schedule, they were unable to get the books signed in time for the order. However, it says they will be shipping the autographed booklet the week of 3/15

Rec'd my swag today. As I ordered 2 combos hope I receive 2 autographed booklets, when the autographs are sent my way?
so happy that CM/USA had XXL sized shirts, I like oversized
its a hip/hop thing, if you ever see a photo of Eminem wearing a tshirt,
you may understand???

 

[stizzleomnibus]

And the drums are certainly more complex than on Fiction, there're a lot more tempo/rhythm changes.

Time shifts like the ones on this album aren't terribly difficult. They're mostly doubling or halving time, which basically means playing the same time differently. There's a huge exception for the breakdown in HSL, but still, nothing near the huge amount of complex time signatures on older albums.

That said, I'm retracting my statement for a different reason. While the album doesn't have a lot of the extremely developed signature parts in the breakdowns, the fills (which were largely improvised) are pretty amazing. The dexterity is phenomenal. It sounds like some kind of hybrid cheetah/octopus behind the kit.

 

[Defiance]

Time shifts like the ones on this album aren't terribly difficult. They're mostly doubling or halving time, which basically means playing the same time differently. There's a huge exception for the breakdown in HSL, but still, nothing near the huge amount of complex time signatures on older albums.

That said, I'm retracting my statement for a different reason. While the album doesn't have a lot of the extremely developed signature parts in the breakdowns, the fills (which were largely improvised) are pretty amazing. The dexterity is phenomenal. It sounds like some kind of hybrid cheetah/octopus behind the kit.

I really didn't want to say that they're 'complex', but more complex than on Fiction hehe. Haha I like that description .

 

[Defiance]

On 'Iridium', and another song that I don't remeber, there're two vocalists. Did two people sing or was it just Mikael?

I keep getting more and more into the album, I'm really starting to like it .

 

[Villain]

in my opinion:

too clean = flat
fiction = way to flat
WATV = perhaps best prod ever....
as always, subjective. But i think the trashier songs would fall flat with an even cleaner production.

You might be right about the thrashier songs, I didn't think about that. I really loved the "flat" production on Fiction, but I also liked the "deeper" sound of Character - and yet something on WAtV bothers me. I even went and listened through Character once again to try and note the difference between it and WAtV, and while the lead guitar solos on Character sound weaker, I just somehow like its sound overall better than that of WAtV. It's not a big deal, but on certain songs, like Iridium, the overall "muddiness"(?) of the sound distracts me a bit. It's certainly subjective, but I fail to understand what exactly makes me feel this way.

Can someone more sound engineer-savvy than me explain, what is the difference between the production on Character and WAtV? Or is the song-material between those two albums so different that a relatively similar production has different results?

With that out of the way, I really don't have any other complaints of We Are the Void, and I certainly disagree with all those who say this is too close to their previous work or somehow derivative - I really think the gap between Fiction and We Are the Void is larger than any the band has crossed since the leap between The Mind's I and Projector. Yes, I'd argue the steps from Skydancer to The Gallery or from Projector to Haven are smaller than this latest one.

As for favorite songs, several stand out for me, but at the moment the foremost of them is Arkhangelsk, which just might have the most beautiful keyboard-melody I've ever heard. Some of the tracks I liked a lot on the first playthrough have fallen into the shadow of other not-so-immediately attractive songs I've steadily grown to like more and more. Surface the Infinite is a good example of the former: it was among my favorites after the first listening, but now it feels almost mediocre (still not bad). And yet The Fatalist remains as one of the high points of the album, even though I felt so already when I heard the chorus for the first time. I don't like the album as a whole as much as I loved Fiction (and still do), but We Are the Void is a very strong and - above all - unique album in the band's catalogue, no matter what the detractors might say.

-Villain

 

[Defiance]

You might be right about the thrashier songs, I didn't think about that. I really loved the "flat" production on Fiction, but I also liked the "deeper" sound of Character - and yet something on WAtV bothers me. I even went and listened through Character once again to try and note the difference between it and WAtV, and while the lead guitar solos on Character sound weaker, I just somehow like its sound overall better than that of WAtV. It's not a big deal, but on certain songs, like Iridium, the overall "muddiness"(?) of the sound distracts me a bit. It's certainly subjective, but I fail to understand what exactly makes me feel this way.

Can someone more sound engineer-savvy than me explain, what is the difference between the production on Character and WAtV? Or is the song-material between those two albums so different that a relatively similar production has different results?

With that out of the way, I really don't have any other complaints of We Are the Void, and I certainly disagree with all those who say this is too close to their previous work or somehow derivative - I really think the gap between Fiction and We Are the Void is larger than any the band has crossed since the leap between The Mind's I and Projector. Yes, I'd argue the steps from Skydancer to The Gallery or from Projector to Haven are smaller than this latest one.

As for favorite songs, several stand out for me, but at the moment the foremost of them is Arkhangelsk, which just might have the most beautiful keyboard-melody I've ever heard. Some of the tracks I liked a lot on the first playthrough have fallen into the shadow of other not-so-immediately attractive songs I've steadily grown to like more and more. Surface the Infinite is a good example of the former: it was among my favorites after the first listening, but now it feels almost mediocre (still not bad). And yet The Fatalist remains as one of the high points of the album, even though I felt so already when I heard the chorus for the first time. I don't like the album as a whole as much as I loved Fiction (and still do), but We Are the Void is a very strong and - above all - unique album in the band's catalogue, no matter what the detractors might say.

-Villain

Yes, I agree, the production is very different, I'd say a tad weaker than on previous albums. For me, a musician, is sometimes very difficult to listen to certain riffs, especially when they're combined with the vocals and keyboards. It should've been a bit lower, more towards the production in Character.

Check the Now Playing thread Villain .

 

[Lyre's Harmony]

iridium...

 

[stizzleomnibus]

My complaints about the (potential) quality of the published album did not come true. I received today a Double LP, with the bonus tracks listed on the back. And a cute, mis-spelled letter about the impending shipping of my autographed booklet. The handwritten note was a nice touch.