Be(a)st of 2015

[jrmy]

You liked the new Torche? ewwwww

I did! Not a fan? I liked it better than Harmonicraft.

I loved harmonicraft, but this one melted and I was never ever to get through to it without turning off. I'll try to give it a spin again sometime soon.

I didn't dislike Harmonicraft—they're just one of those bands whose heavier/less melodic material sounds better to me (despite the fact that I love melodic stuff probably most of the time). Same goes for Baroness.

I liked the new Torche ok, but definitely prefer their more melodic stuff too - Harmonicraft was huge for me. Actually, the Harmonslaught single was one of my favorite things, splitting the heavy/melodic balance perfectly. I know they wanted Restarter to be sludgier than Harmonicraft, but I think it lost a little something for me in the process.

And it's funny about Baroness - on first blush, I like their older stuff, but I find myself coming back to the newer melodic stuff more often.

EDIT: also, I agree - that was a great list popvulture. I hate putting together end of year lists personally, because often so much of what I love comes from different times than the year I discover it (I'm eternally a year or two behind). Ah well.

[D.o.S.]

It's the 'yo lets just restart the old heavy band so we can put the old heavy songs there' phenomenon.

[Dungus]

You liked the new Torche? ewwwww

I did! Not a fan? I liked it better than Harmonicraft.

I loved harmonicraft, but this one melted and I was never ever to get through to it without turning off. I'll try to give it a spin again sometime soon.

I didn't dislike Harmonicraft—they're just one of those bands whose heavier/less melodic material sounds better to me (despite the fact that I love melodic stuff probably most of the time). Same goes for Baroness.

I liked the new Torche ok, but definitely prefer their more melodic stuff too - Harmonicraft was huge for me. Actually, the Harmonslaught single was one of my favorite things, splitting the heavy/melodic balance perfectly. I know they wanted Restarter to be sludgier than Harmonicraft, but I think it lost a little something for me in the process.

And it's funny about Baroness - on first blush, I like their older stuff, but I find myself coming back to the newer melodic stuff more often.

EDIT: also, I agree - that was a great list popvulture. I hate putting together end of year lists personally, because often so much of what I love comes from different times than the year I discover it (I'm eternally a year or two behind). Ah well.

For me, Torche's problem is that Meanderthal was pretty much a masterpiece and everything that came after was always going to be a tiny bit lame in comparison.

[D.o.S.]

For me, Torche's problem is that Meanderthal In Return was pretty much a masterpiece and everything that came after was always going to be a tiny bit lame in comparison.

[Dungus]

For me, Torche's problem is that Meanderthal In Return was pretty much a masterpiece and everything that came after was always going to be a tiny bit lame in comparison.

Same with Kylesa. Static Tensions pisses all over the stuff that came after that one. It's hard doing band ! !

[jrmy]

Huh. Another example in which I really love the later end of the catalog - I started really getting into Kylesa with Spiral Shadow, which I still dig a lot. Really into the newest one, too.

EDIT: if nothing else, this latest tangent has me reviewing all of the Torche on my iPod, and remembering how much I love a whole ton of it...

[popvulture]

For me, Torche's problem is that Meanderthal In Return was pretty much a masterpiece and everything that came after was always going to be a tiny bit lame in comparison.

Same with Kylesa. Static Tensions pisses all over the stuff that came after that one. It's hard doing band ! !

I totally agree about both Meanderthal and Static Tensions... those are really hard acts to follow. I do still like the ones that came after, though, albeit just not as much.

I guess the melodic thing often comes down to vocals for me. I always thought Baroness had a really tremendous sense of melody in their instrumentation, but then Yellow & Green came out and the vocals just sounded like Nickelback. I know this is what tons of people have said already, some saying that yeah it does sound like it and it therefore sucks, some saying no it doesn't sound like it and you're all just being assholes who won't let a band grow... I'm fine with a band growing; I just hope they don't grow into Nickelback in the process.

Mastodon would be an example where I really enjoyed getting into a newer, more melodic direction. Crack the Skye weirded me out a little bit at first, but it took me hardly any time to come around.

But then, ya know... Leviathan.

[DarkAxel]

Kylesa does the same thing all the time I think. You can hardly go wrong picking any of their records to listen to

Torche is similar to me Harmonicraft went a bit more pop, I do consider In Return and Meanderthal as top ones, but I liked the new one and consider it very similar nothing new, nothing too repetitive, just right. Massive sound, too

Baroness yes... shit, the Nickelback vocal thing is bugging me so hard! Yellow/Green is not BAD, it should have been one record instead of two, but it's not BAD... still - there has never been and will never be a Baroness album better then Red Album. That's such a top notch album that it's easily the best of theirs and one of my favourite metal records. Production-wise, song-writing wise, the whole nine yards

I don't get why people dislike newer Mastodon's stuff that much. The last one is not bad, there are great songs, some are a bit silly, but why not... even The Hunter is good. Leviathan and Blood Mountain are the best, but it's all really good

[popvulture]

Yep, I'm with you on the Red Album--definitely my fave.

I really like pretty much all of Mastodon's stuff. Leviathan may be of my personal all time favorite metal records ever, but I'd never want to be one of those fans that demands a band make their landmark record over and over, and I honestly love where they've ended up going. Can't say the same for how I feel about Baroness, but I'm sure plenty of people dig their new direction.

[Inconuucl]

Yep, I'm with you on the Red Album--definitely my fave.

I really like pretty much all of Mastodon's stuff. Leviathan may be of my personal all time favorite metal records ever, but I'd never want to be one of those fans that demands a band make their landmark record over and over, and I honestly love where they've ended up going. Can't say the same for how I feel about Baroness, but I'm sure plenty of people dig their new direction.

As a prog head, Purple is making me happy (what I've heard.)

[DarkAxel]

Yeah, I have big expectations for Purple for the same reason But I just want to make them get back from the poppy Nickelback cheese of parts of Yellow/Green

[THEMILKWRENCH]

this be my jam this year



this too

[D.o.S.]

At the 11th Hour!

New GOG collab:
https://instrumentsofdiscipline.bandcam ... recordings
https://soundcloud.com/instruments-of-d ... m=facebook

[casecandy]

"Grief" was definitely one of the singles of the year, for sure.

[psychic vampire.]

I often take forever to get around to new music, and usually only get around to one genre at a time, which genre depending on season, mood, depression levels, and whether I am playing more bass or more synth. To that end these are the few new albums I listened to this year that blew me away:

Abyssal - Antikatastaseis
Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss
Bell Witch - Four Phantoms

And I really liked the G.L.O.S.S. demo, but as a "trans" person who basically got excluded from punk because of what I was, i have a lot of intense feelings that are neither here nor there. My band almost opened for them, but shit happened.
I really wanted to like Panopticon's new album more. Plan to get around to new Cruciamentum. It's been a lot of death metal lately.

W/R/T Baroness, Kylesa, and Torche, for me, back at the time I loved them, First, To Walk a Middle Course, and In Return were my favorites. I stopped listening after Red, Static Tensions, and Meanderthal respectively. I have kind of wondered what these bands sound like these days, but usually hear not great things. Purple being proggy sounds cool, is there anything I should check out?