Indeed the new Amon Amarth is pretty great. They don't stray from their style but it's every bit as solid as With Oden On Our Side and Surtur Rising, if not quite as memorable.
Meanwhile, I shall use my 6666th post to cover Behemoth's new release, The Satanist. And hot damn what a release.
Now Behemoth have recently been quite divisive, and for good reason, their style has been quite straightforward, featuring pummeling aggression and little of anything else. Naturally, some were okay with that, others not so much.
With that in mind, I'm happy to say the The Satanist is most likely the best album Behemoth have put out to date, and it's very likely to appeal to both fans and people who previously deemed the band to be too boring or predictable. The reason for this is that the songwriting on the new album is very much improved, focusing more on interesting, memorable riffs and well-crafted atmosphere and passages, rather than hammering your face constantly with blast beats, powerful but bland riffs and layered vocals. Speaking of vocals, they've also improved, they lend themselves much better to this new style as they aren't quite as processed, and Nergal uses cleans as well on a few occasions to great effect. The riffs are better in every respect, featuring more blackened trems than previously; the bass has a good tone and is at times quite interesting and the drumming is as proficient as always, although less in-your-face-br00tal than before.
Make no mistake, Behemoth still bring the earth-shattering aural assault that they're known for, only this time they use it a little more sparingly, interspersed with much-needed but not out-of-place atmospheric segments. The album feels a lot more cohesive and focused as a result, since it's not merely a collection of relatively short onslaughts pounding your ears constantly anymore.
Stylistically I'd say it greatly expands on the sounds from Evangelion, bringing into the mix even more atmospheric and blackened elements to their crushing death metal formula, but overall it's significantly better in every single respect.
A must-listen for death metal fans without a doubt. If you liked the band before, you'll most likely enjoy this. If you felt they weren't interesting enough, this may very well change that.
As for recommended songs, I can't say there was a single one that I found particularly boring or mediocre. It was excellent from start to finish. But I'll leave you with a couple highlights anyway:
On April 10 2014 02:56 DoctorHelvetica wrote: Anyone listen to Thou - Heathen yet? Besides the new Teitanblood it's my top metal release of the year so far.
Hmm interesting. Heard a couple of songs off that after you mentioned it, it certainly sounds like something I'd dig when I'm in a doomy/post- mood. How does this compare to the rest of their discography, do they have other albums worth getting? etc
As for Teitanblood, wasn't able to get much info on them from my trusted sites, other than them being a death/black -ish kinda band. What band would you say they most resemble in style?
I've really been in love with these 2 bands. Roy Khan is a god among men in terms of vocals, and the therion guitarist almost never shows off but can REALLY rip it when he does. Also I'm starting to see that the singers who start off as classical/opera singers and then go into metal such as Roy Khan and the therion singers are leagues above even the best of the metal singers who start off as metal.
i'm only interested in the music videos. i think symphonic/power metal are among the worst and most embarrassing genres of music on the planet but the videos are very entertaining in the same way that really bad movies can be. it's unbelievable to me that anyone takes that music seriously
I fail to see what's embaressing about actual musicians who have actual musicianship, or why it's wrong for themselves to take themselves seriously. Those people could go and join operas and actual symphonies just as easily and take themselves seriously there if they wanted to. So sorry if I fail to see the humor in very talanted musicians (not metal players like most metal bands, actual musicians) making high quality music, could you explain the humor?
Not aware of any other projects, but I'm sure at last their drummer is in bunch of other bands.
Disma sounds heavy, adding that album to my endless list of "stuff to check out". I have literally hundreds albums in there - not enough time in the world to check them all.
On April 18 2014 09:11 DoctorHelvetica wrote: i'm only interested in the music videos. i think symphonic/power metal are among the worst and most embarrassing genres of music on the planet but the videos are very entertaining in the same way that really bad movies can be. it's unbelievable to me that anyone takes that music seriously
Don't take life too seriously
At 5:30 below, it's actually what I was about to talk about before I saw this post:
New Sonata Arctica album is definitely my new favorite. It's all over the place, memorable, and has the right mix of seriousness and silliness imho.
The music videos are an embarassment, but the music itself really isn't. Personally I love epic music, and I love catchy music, and I love showing off/watching people show off, so I naturally gravitate to power/symphonic metal simply because it contains all of the above. It's also nice to show to friends and then see that "this is metal?" reaction appear on their faces. The silliness is just a bonus :D
On April 18 2014 09:21 hunts wrote: I fail to see what's embaressing about actual musicians who have actual musicianship, or why it's wrong for themselves to take themselves seriously. Those people could go and join operas and actual symphonies just as easily and take themselves seriously there if they wanted to. So sorry if I fail to see the humor in very talanted musicians (not metal players like most metal bands, actual musicians) making high quality music, could you explain the humor?
Actually, those metal "opera vocalists" lack the versatility to go do real opera work. They're pretty average actually, and they are very interchangeable. Real standouts in metal are vocalists like Björn Strid (Soilwork) who actually have some versatility in their vocal ability. Not saying they're bad, just boring.
On April 18 2014 09:21 hunts wrote: I fail to see what's embaressing about actual musicians who have actual musicianship, or why it's wrong for themselves to take themselves seriously. Those people could go and join operas and actual symphonies just as easily and take themselves seriously there if they wanted to. So sorry if I fail to see the humor in very talanted musicians (not metal players like most metal bands, actual musicians) making high quality music, could you explain the humor?
Actually, those metal "opera vocalists" lack the versatility to go do real opera work. They're pretty average actually, and they are very interchangeable. Real standouts in metal are vocalists like Björn Strid (Soilwork) who actually have some versatility in their vocal ability. Not saying they're bad, just boring.
And metal music videos are generally ridiculous.
lmfao. I've heard plenty of soilwork, and the guy is not versitile. He has 2 styles, scream, and generic sing, he cannot do opera. And the kamelot singer and therion singers ARE actual opera singers, so yes they could easily get work in actual music if they chose to, which you can't say about most metal bands sadly. But I didn't come here to argue, just to post some good music, although its quite clear that deathmetal is just about all that seems to be appreciated here.
edit: Yeah sonata arctica is pretty awesome, one of my favorite bands.
I didn't see anyone posting the new Animal as Leaders album: The Joy of Motion Now, it's progressive instrumental metal. Certainly not everyone's delight but it is absolutely amazing in terms of musicality and skill involved (did I mention its awesome musicality ?). Check their 2 precedent albums as well (Animal as Leaders (2009), especially CAFO and Weightless (2011))
I'd easily recommend the whole album, depending on how you like your metal
EPT
