Mercoledì 31 Gen 2007, 21:23
Because I'm somewhat listless after a jazz concert tonight in the city, I am writing this. Wombaticus wrote down his top-100 albums a little while ago, and although I'm not quite so ambitious at the moment, I'll see what I can add to the lore.
An indisputable classic. This album evolves on you, I've noticed. Upon first listen, my favorite track was easily The Drapery Falls, being fairly easy to digest and understand in a musical sense. Now, I have a difficult time pinpointing the best song on the album - it could be The Leper Affinity, or it could be the headbangable title track, but then I'd be neglecting all the other great tracks. This was the album that introduced me to metal - before, I'd listened to Orchid, with some varied feelings, and Theatre of Tragedy. But this sent me irrevocably deeper into the rich world of metal.
This is a masterpiece, an epic, incredible in every way. Progressive metal, or even music in general rarely encounters something this good. Although I usually stay away from religious material (unless it's praising Satan, of course), the concept - an amalgamation of ideas from the three major monotheistic religions - is well-suited to the huge scope of the music, a flood which cleanses humanity from the earth. The instruments are not typically metal, but rather a mixture of various Middle-Eastern instruments alongside the standard fare you'd expect in most any band. The song-writing is truly top-notch, and every single song has a chorus or solo or something extraordinarily memorable that will make you change your 'favorite' on every play.
This being my first album that mostly dabbled in death metal, it scared me at first. Imagine putting this CD into your computer for the first time and hearing those first, undeniably menacing guitar riffs, followed by Chuck's screaming. Nothing much surprises me in metal anymore, but at that innocent moment, I was thinking I might've wasted my money. Well, here we are: I now consider this a classic. Every song kills, and the transition within the final two minutes of Perennial Quest is quite honestly my favourite two minutes in all metal. But seriously, if you like metal, and yet don't know Death, then.. well, you've got some learning to do.
This album has tremendous sentimental value for me, especially the song Eden. Funny story: I first heard of the 10,000 Maniacs while watching Sabrina The Teenage Witch, where Natalie Merchant made a guest appearance at the end of one show. Not really being adept at the intarwebs, I got onto a little program called Napster and tried finding the song they'd performed on the show. No such luck, but it served to introduce me to the band's wider catalog. (I later bought their albums; who says piracy is completely bad?) And some six years later, this album still ranks as one of my most cherished: full of beautiful, intelligent alternative rock songs with the voice of Natalie Merchant at the front. (My infatuation with Sabrina long over, I now wonder why 10,000 Maniacs would even appear on the show…the band was certainly on a different level.)
I haven't heard much of the earlier doom-era Anathema, but almost don't want to after hearing Judgement. Incredibly emotional, especially on One Last Goodbye, a heart-wrenching song to rival all others. I've heard some depressing stuff before - Shape of Despair and Evoken come to mind - but compared with the crushing atmosphere of Anathema, other bands are simply trying too hard. With this album, Anathema reached their pinnacle and will never create anything like it again.
Although some purists scorn Heartwork as Carcass's sell-out album (since they changed from grindcore into a death metal style verging on melodic), I'd rank it as a masterpiece. My first song was Buried Dreams, a song that deeply confused me. How could a band with such an 'ugly' name as Carcass produce a song with such a 'pretty' name? Of course, I thought most of the song was pretty bad, too, except for the guitar solo. Somewhere along the way, something clicked, and very suddenly, Heartwork rocked harder than anything else. More than a decade after its release, it still rules. And Blind Bleeding The Blind might be the grooviest metal song I've ever heard.
There are two instances in this song/album that kill me every time. One comes just after fifteen minutes, when the crunchy guitars are overwhelmed by the most enveloping atmosphere I've ever heard; when the strings begin floating atop the guitars, I can't suppress a shiver. The second moment starts right before 42 minutes and contains one of the greatest guitar solos I've heard. But those are only the stand-out points; in reality, LoDDoD doesn't have any weak points. Many dislike the extended female vocal section in the middle, but I happen to enjoy it as building up the anticipation for that spectacular solo mentioned before.
Maybe I need to listen to Scarsick again, but Pain of Salvation went downhill really fast after Remedy Lane (another very good album). There are varying opinions, sure, but The Perfect Element has always been their best album in my eyes. The cheerful Ashes (not) followed by Morning On Earth constitute two of my favourite songs, alternating between suffocatingly deep bass in Ashes and the wonderful melodies of Morning On Earth. I have no idea what the concept behind this album is - like all of Pain of Salvation's albums, there is a concept, but it seems to be more a disjointed series of images taken throughout a life than a cohesive story. Oh well, it's great.
NORSE! LONG BLONDE HAIR THAT IS SOFT AND WAVY! NORSE! This album makes me feel as though I'm fronting the blessed charge against the Irish, my sword thirsting for blood. Now, I'm about as pacifistic as you'll find, so this is genuinely a mood-altering album, marvelously encapsulating all the emotions of glory and heroism and fallen warriors. Sure, many songs are similar, but when you're infused with blood-lust, I can't imagine you care very much.
Beautiful post-rock landscapes. All the songs just sparkle with happiness and melting snow; I don't really know how to describe it beyond that. Although I have ( ) at home, the presence of Glósóli and Hoppípolla makes me prefer this album. The video to Glósóli, by the way, is such a wonderful thing. Man, this album (along with a few others) could probably get my metal license revoked if I go around telling people about it. Oh well.
Pursuit of the Sun & Allure of the Earth
Very few musical pieces evoke visual responses in me, yet this album strikes me in a somehow cinematic way. I'm able to close my eyes and see a very warm forest drenched in dappled sunlight. To be honest with you, listening to 'cold' black metal at this time of year is just depressing, so I vastly prefer the glowing June weather that somehow got mixed up in the production of this album.
HAIL LORD WORM. This is one of the sickest albums I've had the pleasure of hearing, full of insane drumming and the completely indecipherable vocals of Lord Worm (even if you have a lyrics sheet, there's no indication Lord Worm ever looked at it). If you even remotely value extreme musicianship, this album is a must-have.
I don't think I've ever 'gotten' the other albums released by DTB. Maybe I've been suckered in by commercialism, but I really really like the straightforward stuff in Accelerated Evolution, even something like Sunday Afternoon. Maybe I should be embarrassed about that, but I won't be. These songs are incredibly textured and give me warm fuzzies, particularly something like Storm - which is incidentally the first song I ever heard by DTB, in advance of seeing them in concert supporting Opeth. And Devin was actually pretty cool on stage, maybe even better than Mikael (who was either really drunk or still confused after the plane trip).
This could be termed my 'guilty pleasure' album (along with a few others, I suppose), because it's full of catchy hard rock anthems, surprisingly talented musicians, and a few ballads that I probably wouldn't admit to enjoying around other people. Somehow, all fourteen tracks are insanely addictive; if nothing else, Gotthard nails consistency spot-on and has boundless melodic spirit to boot.
While I love The Great Cold Distance I also have a particular 'thing' for Tonight's Decision. Minimalist, depressing, gloomy…oh, and a great cover of Jeff Buckley's Nightmares By the Sea. An excellent album for playing in the car at night, possibly as you're heading toward the railroad tracks to wait for an oncoming train.
Ahh…see, music strikes me in peculiar ways. A long time ago, when 'music' meant whatever was being played on the radio, I noticed that songs occasionally weren't immediately catchy. This sometimes meant they were utterly worthless (like much of top-40), but…very rarely, meant that I wouldn't suffer from the desire to gouge my ears out after hearing the song ten times. They had a certain amount of complexity - often unheard of in pop - that meant I wasn't bored after two listens.
Thus: Lykathea Aflame. After a long time during which they didn't agree with me, I quite suddenly realized how brilliant they were. Wonderful drumming (think back to Cryptopsy), good guitar-work, and an atmosphere that drowns you. It's a strange marriage, technical death metal and a garden of paradise, that somehow works. No doubt influenced by the final song, Walking in the Garden of Ma'at (which is entirely synths and birdsong, but strangely not boring), I visualize the entire album as taking place within an Eden-like realm. They might've been another standard tech-death outfit, but there's something otherworldly about their sound that I can't quite describe. Perhaps it would strike you differently (these are highly subjective interpretations, after all), but it's still good music taken out of whatever mystical context my mind has formed.
If I've counted right, that's sixteen albums. Maybe I'll add to the list later (this is by no means comprehensive, before you start arguing that I've left off X album). Were this comprehensive, there'd also be Immortal, At the Gates, Porcupine Tree, Symphony X, Mayhem, and whatever else strikes my aural fancy.