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MrTurtleshell
Sirenia's first two releases were gold in my book, but the following three got progressively worse - the 2011 one just flat out stunk on ice. I'll have to look it up when I get back from vacation.
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MrTurtleshell
Oh, the new Sirenia is out already? How is it? Their single sounded really good, I've got high hopes for it.
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within_darkness
Heh, now that's mostly understandable. Such albums can easily mess up one's plans, you know... speaking of The Foreshadowing, I mean. These days I wake up and fall asleep with Second World.
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within_darkness
Soulfly was never my cup of tea so it was only natural that I found the new album to be just as uninspiring as always. In Mourning, on the other hand, crafted a killer album, with Colossus being one of the best tracks I've heard recently. And because of the entire doom sway I came to like it more than their previous two records, so it's a win/win situation. I barely remember Abstract Entity myself so I might follow your advice. The new tracks sound kinda cool so I'll keep my eyes open. As for Moonspell, my current 2012 number 1.
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within_darkness
Hehe, Deals Death again... I must re-listen to it but I quite liked it in the end. I remember you asked me for some recommendations - a friend of mine buzzed me of these guys, they'll release the second album this year, I guess. So far there are several new songs and snippets circulating the Net but you might [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMZ4JE-nHEU&feature=related]this[/url] particularly interesting.
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within_darkness
Yes, but the mood of their music wasn't exactly what I was looking for back then. Might give them another chance in time.
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within_darkness
Collapse Under the Empire, such a fantastic project :) Can't wait for the upcoming EP & album.
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within_darkness
That's more than certain. Just be sure to give it enough time, it's starting to grow here, finally :D
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within_darkness
Ah, think I just heard what I wanted, that one horrible moment that makes me wanna bury myself underground. Brrrr....
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within_darkness
I haven't even listened to Deals Death yet, lots of albums were put on hold because of... others :D Sorry about the "bad' aspect, hehe :D I'm just getting into the new Foreshadowing, this one will definitely take more time, but I already got shot through the heart because of several songs. They changed something... the leading melodies have a different structure this time, they introduced more choirs, the guitars have also changed... let's just say that it's damn good on first spins but I'm yet to unravel the mysteries of its Greatness.
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within_darkness
That's just it, despite his range he just isn't interesting to me as a singer, the same goes for the music... but to each his own, after all, enjoy the record. I'd never compare them to Amorphis nor to any other metal band because they're just some light rock to me, but they probably stand on their own in the genre. As for PotF, now that's what I call catchy.
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within_darkness
I just heard it once last night and it's good, maybe lacks some highlights as "Dreaming Wide Awake" and "War" from the previous effort, but this is actually more insightful and it's in no way less "musical". Plus, that last song comes of Alan Wake's American Nightmare XD You know, I was just thinking the same thing last week... Maarko has the most versatile voice I've heard in rock lately, if not even in general. He sounds equally effective in both baladic and uptempo tracks and he relies on so much emotion that it's scary to believe it sometimes. By far the best vocal discovery of mine in a long time. See you listened to that "Unity" track of Shinedown, someone linked me to the video on FB today, along with a preview of 5-6 more tracks and it just sounds the same to me, kinda diluted, wasted and deprived of any ideas whatsoever which still could've been good enough if I was 13, let's say. So if that's like half the album, I don't think I want to waste my time on the rest.
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within_darkness
Great song, maybe not my favorite on the album but pretty damn awesome nonetheless. Sure, I checked out the PotF discography and thanks to a certain 'best of' compilation that a friend of mine sent me, I got terribly hooked up to them. They sure have cool songs and I absolutely love the vocals. They're not engaging or something, just very pleasant rock songs to listen to. Highlights: Carnival of Rust, Locking Up the Sun, Lift, Overboard, The Ultimate Fling, War, Dreaming Wide Awake, Illusion & Dream... and they get even more with each spin :)
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within_darkness
I got into PotF because of Alan Wake, yea :D Amberian Dawn was cool, I loved the first couple of tracks and especially "Fight" due to the guitars there, I think. Local bands... could be, but I have to think on what to recommend since the last outputs are either thrash or black metal oriented :D Though I recently stumbled upon a promising name, so you'll hear from me. You should keep an eye for [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kouaAYmdiQY]this[/url] :)
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within_darkness
"a less folk-y and harder version of Leaves Eyes" is exactly what "Cursed" is all about with that Leaves' Eyes-ish chorus, haha :D But I see you gladly got to it so there's no need to explain anymore :) Let me know if you like it. As for the galleries, a slower loading is to be expected with a more dynamic design. Let's just hope this place won't turn into another MySpace. Suddenly everyone is spamming me with PotF, so yeah, I'm getting the discography, alright, alright!!!! O_O
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within_darkness
Now when I think of it, the design change isn't so bad, especially concerning the renewed band pic galleries. Nice.
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within_darkness
Woah, something's wrong with the typography after that last.fm interface change. Anyways, Valentine is in no means representative of the entire album, it's more on the "expected single" side of things. There are much more interesting compositions, there's power metal (The Lost Elysion FTW, my favorite next to Blood on My Hands), a bit of folkish celtic tunes, oriental elements, whatever you're in for :) Deals Death inspirations are crystal clear, I guess :D Should be an awesome record.
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within_darkness
And yeah, because I also linked you to Deals Death's album back when I first mentioned Tracedawn and it was supposedly getting released in March, the exact date is already here. March 14th will see the light of day of one of my most anticipated albums in this genre for years, and, if they did their job properly, it'll be damn worth it.
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within_darkness
I put a lot of effort into trying to forget Helvetios.The band lost its charm and even worse, its compositional skills; there are many Dark Tranquillity guitar methods which I would've welcomed with open arms were they not to blame for pushing the folk elements all the way to the background. What else? Lack of highlights, uber crappy vocals, messy tunes... well, you got it. Their last good (the best for me, tbh) effort was Slania, after which they lost it. Tracedawn, on the other hand, released their best album yet - it probably would've been even greater if not for some midtempo songs after the cosmic start & choruses like that of Sick Fire, but the rest is close to being perfect - Arabian Nights, Breed Insane, You're Fired!, Machine, all the aggressive melospeed blasts. As a friend of mine mentioned back when we got the promo, the guitarist's cleans sound on the verge of being overproduced so I guess it's a common thing with such vocals. But the main singer met my expectations! :)
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hystericromance
Yeah, Our Truth is goooood, but I think my expectations for Dark Adrenaline were just so so so low that everything turned out better than I expected. xD Hmmm, In a Reverie is alright, but yeah, it's by no means my favourite of their older stuff even. I quite like Comalies and even Karmacode (for its catchiness!). I liked a few of the songs off Shallow Life, but there were actually some that I actively did not like. :/ Yeah! Rain is very welcome after a decent amount of snow especially! Oh no, school sounds like it's pretty brutal right now. :( No worries, I'm sure you can do it!! The commute to work is alright xD It's very dreary and grey and wet right now so it's kind of depressing but oh well. It'll be nice when Spring comes! :D I hate waking up to darkness and leaving the office in darkness. :T
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within_darkness
Bah... to think of the horrible light and the heat and everything... I think I'd stick with winter, thanks :D:D
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MrTurtleshell
Yup! I was terribly impressed by it. The only song I really don't like all that much was Slow Love Slow. I'd just say the songwriting gripped me a lot more than DPP did (although I love Poet + Pendulum). I just felt a lot of the songs kind of fell by the wayside due to the band still getting used to Annette. With Imaginarium, I felt the music was suited perfectly to her abilities. And as for Lacuna Coil - I used to be into them way back when, but I just sort of lost interest. Saw them live a couple years back, front row dead center (almost). That was a cool experience, and I think I'm going to savor that and call it good, haha. :P I guess I wasn't too into their new material at the time, either. Maybe I'll take a gander at it at some point out of curiosity. Anything you'd recommend?
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hystericromance
Yeah, I was expecting a horrible album with Dark Adrenaline (especially after Shallow Life and its catchy/poppy emptiness), but it's quite okay. I don't like it as much as their older stuff, I think, but it's still not bad. :) Oh man, -15 is so low :( It really warmed up here and the rain has washed all of our snow away. How are things going school/work-wise?
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hystericromance
Heya! Yeah, I know! :D I've listened to it once already and it's not bad. Quite like Intoxicated and Trip the Darkness and their cover of Losing My Religion. How are you finding Dark Adrenaline? :O Ah yes, it is dreadfully cold. D: It's like -10 C but it'll be warming up soon, supposedly. How are things over in Toronto? Cold?
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within_darkness
Haha, no sun for me right now, I'll stick to the gloomy side of it all for a while :D There's enough of summer if you wanna see me all shiny XD
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within_darkness
Many thanks :) Let's hope you'll find something interesting on that list of mine. I agree on your LC impressions - grew fast on me, listened more and more, now I just have other things that keep me occupied, but overall it's a pretty good record to listen to. And hah, "dull" is the right word for "My Spirit", it's the only track which I can't stand all that much while "The Army Inside" has a very weird Paradise Lost take that I can't quite wrap my head around just yet, but it made the song entertaining. But the material is solid and works well for them... but it's kind of hard to write about LC right now since I'm in a totally gloomy-doom state XD
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within_darkness
So check on Lacuna's new stuff when it's out... it's interesting, to say the least, and better than what I expected to hear after their last two efforts. My list is [url=http://www.last.fm/user/within_darkness/journal/2011/12/21/594t8d_2011_top_metal_albums]here[/url] :) And yeah, Deals Death know how to write classy melodies, I'm also completely happy with Tracedawn's new vocalist, they made a great choice.
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within_darkness
Bah, totally forgot I wanted to pass you two songs of upcoming albums - [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfJwXiElJKw]1[/url] and [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-SOuTudH1s&feature=player_embedded]2[/url], since we both like that kind of music.
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within_darkness
Sounds familiar but I lost faith in the band long time ago, last album I liked (even loved, haha) was Comalies. That's why I didn't expect anything, not to mention after that Shallow Life failure. Dark Adrenaline is more or less conceived by both their past and present and so far it doesn't sound bad - it's a straightforward record, very easygoing but also growing a bit boring when you spin it more. Still, "boring" is much better than "unbearable" if you follow me. The single isn't a great indication of what's to come but it's among the catchiest pieces. Among other highlights for me are Give Me Something More, The Army Inside (even Andrea sounds more or less fine there), maybe Intoxicated and the Losing My Religion cover - that thing troubled me even when I first saw the tracklist 'cause I always hated the song because of the irritating airplay it got back in the day, but gladly Lacuna's interpretation has little to do with the original. Try it and you might get into it as I did.
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within_darkness
Which was the single, Kill the Light of Trip the Darkness? Also, depends on what you mean by being deceptive as for such a track. And on your attitude towards their last couple of albums... so let me know and I'll break it down for you.
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within_darkness
Haha, that's exactly what I said when I heard "Eve of Corruption" for the first time :D Soulfallen will be out on 18th January, almost in time for my birthday :)
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within_darkness
Two, since Soulfallen's effort got postponed 'till January 2012. First one is a debut of a more classic power metal band called Lorenguard, you can check the first single [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO9KgKOxJOY]here[/url]. Heard it and felt instantly in love, they remind me of early Gamma Ray for some reason... The album is already out so I guess I'll just purchase it online these days. The second is the new album of Conquest from Ukraine (power as well), here's something from their previous record although my favorite will always remain its predecessor, I think - [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zi7nEG3GBaE&feature=related]click[/url]. Strato worship all the way ;)
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within_darkness
I see, good luck :) I'm pretty much done with my top chart of 2011 if you need more precise updates, so I'll settle down and upload it these days. Waiting for three more albums to be released but they'll hardly make a huge difference.
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hystericromance
:O I had no idea about the new gazettE album so thank you so much for the heads up!! :D And sorry for being so slow at replying! >< Storytime is really great! I think that it captured new-era Nightwish really really well! IMAGINAERUM HAS BEEN LEAKED!! I'm listening to some of the full tracks on YouTube (I'm at work right now) and it seems pretty good. More cohesive than DPP, I think. Have a listen! :) And work is going pretty good now! Haha, naw, no Oracle. Allllll CSS, HTML, Javascript/jQuery, & Ajax :)
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within_darkness
Yes, I can see the similar 'eerie' trend in both Insomnium and Draconian. Gotta warn you that Lisa left just recently though, as for the latter...
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within_darkness
Haha, I just keep my ears down to the ground in case anything interesting pops out :P Do check them out, yeah. And I must say I'm glad I spammed you with Turisas, it sure is pretty damn worthy! ^^ As for Kamelot, nothing official up 'till now, just half-pronounced hints and tries to fuel mass speculations, mine included. Guess by the time they announce it officially we'll all have our own theories :D
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MrTurtleshell
Well, Tuomas isn't shy about writing songs about Disney - he's certainly done it before, and I can't say I didn't like it. Though I don't really want to speculate about it - I did it for Kammy's PftP and I felt it let me down. I have plenty of stuff to keep me occupied til then... right now I've got a stack of like 20 unlistened CD's staring at me while I shamelessly listen to an album I've listened to so much I practically know it by heart now. Winters here are typically forgiving here - aside from the odd flurry of snow that causes the entire city of Seattle to shut down for about a day per 10cm of snow. That being said, it's been pretty much cold and clear for the past month, with one rainy day last week and a mini-hailstorm when I got off of work today. It's been quiet.... too quiet.
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MrTurtleshell
YES. It's got me genuinely excited for that release! Especially with the IMO paltry offering that's been offered up in symphonic and power metal this year. I see that Tuomas has figured out how to better incorporate Anette's vocals in the song writing. I feel that DPP, while good, felt like she was just forced over some of the music. Also, getting back to earlier, I remember checking Van Canto out a year ago. They sounded cool, and spot on with their adaptations, but it all just felt gimmicky for the sake of gimmicky. =\
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within_darkness
They did, the song "Imaginaerum" is pretty long and divided into several acts if I remember well. But for me they've turned from one of the best bands in their league into a joke act so you see why I can't take seriously neither them nor anyone who praises this, it's nothing else but a sign of a missed childhood. Your last question is quite more enjoyable though - I liked the last efforts by Within Temptation, Rhapsody of Fire, Insomnium, SepticFlesh, Vader, Amorphis, Dragonland, Iced Earth, Evergrey, Dreamtale, Obscura, Turisas, Thurisaz, Ghost Brigade, Theocracy, Leaves’ Eyes and maybe some more that I can't remember right now. Not to mention a good number of debuts :) What about you?
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within_darkness
Bits and pieces, let's say. First worst point is that her voice sounds as fragile and unsure as that of a 10-year old girl ready to break down and cry, second is the mass fillers, third is the lack of suitable guitars (again), five - when there actually are some, they repeat the "riff" DPP formula, six - too much sugar in that orchestra and it feels everything BUT organic. Last but not least, too much Disney music (and I'm past the age when I used to like that). Shall I continue?
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