Hell yes! Olympiakos wins the Conference League. Tonight I'm extra proud to be half Greek. Coincidentally Olympiakos is also the team I'm rooting for in Greek football which makes the win all the sweeter.
But yeah man, if you end up at Roadburn do not hesitate to contact me or Radu. Same if you happen to be in Copenhagen or in the very south of Sweden in my case. ;)
Roadburn doesn't sell out as quickly as when I started going. I think it was by February or even March that it finally sold out this year (the festival is in April). The biggest question is where you wanna stay (camping or not)
01. Carbon Phrases 02. From A Hadron Machinist 03. Cthulhu 04. Alter Magnitudes 05. Orgonism 06. Dyson Sphere - I. Mining The Oorth Cloud 07. Dyson Sphere - II. Assembly 08. Dyson Sphere - III. Kardashev II.1 The God Oven 09. Dyson Sphere - IV. Sol Omega 10. The Malkuth Grimoire 11. C-Value Enigma 12. Funeral For A Continent
When it comes to progressive metal, one finds many die-hard fans and others who can't handle it at all. It might be that this genre has a larger ratio of musicians among the fans, those who comprehend the music are more likely to enjoy it with all its facets. Out of nothing now a new band emerged; Alkaloid from Germany greet us with their first ever release after their formation just a year ago. The musicians, however, are known to some people from their work with other big bands like Necrophagist, Obscura or Dark Fortress. Therefore, calling this new project a big surprise would be a bit of an exaggeration, nevertheless the music is worth the praise it currently receives.
I felt cringing inside the last time I tried this one and I couldn't remember why. Let's see now. On first impulse it feels like leftover Obscura material that they tried to make more interesting with nice clean passages. Or, for that matter, it feels like not much of anything at all. Is it the production? To me it seems a bit lifeless, stale. It doesn't quite kick me in the guts. The music is... often good. It seems to be dragging a lot; even if I got hooked, it was usually because of the guitar solo (maybe I'm listening to too much tech death?). It gets me expecting some epic counterpoint or breakdown, but none of these are really happening. Sometimes it succeeds in being chaotic, hoping to be interesting. Just like my review of it.
The music is great, the best prog. death record I have heard in quite some time. I do however have somewhat of a problem with the album length. 73 minutes is bitch to get through regardless of genre and while the band frequently changes up the soundscape I can't help but get a bit of listeners fatigue when listening to it. I understand that this is very much a subjective thing and I get a that some people don't take issue with these things but I generally have a bit of a problem with records that go on for more than 45 minutes, In contrast to more "economically" made records that don't linger to long.
Still, very good record and definitely worth a listen.
Decent stuff, though the guitar work is definitely the highlight here. Like most prog I found the album to be far too long. Chances are I wont be returning to this one much.
Holy hell this is just breathtaking. It is quite rare for me to listen to an album once, be so completely blown away that I give it an immediate second listen and were time permitting this night, a third and more. Best album I've heard in years and that's saying quite a bit.
Damn, Damn and once again Damn. . Accidently I have put the wrong vote.. awesome album! IF I hadn't put the wrong vote I would have said the album is 9!!!!
Damn, Damn and once again Damn. . Accidently I have put the wrong vote.. awesome album! IF I hadn't put the wrong vote I would have said the album is 9!!!!
Damn, Damn and once again Damn. . Accidently I have put the wrong vote.. awesome album! IF I hadn't put the wrong vote I would have said the album is 9!!!!
You know you can change the vote, right?
Oh.. Thanks a lot! I am really was not in the know...
Wow, such praise. Going to listen to this one tonight.
Edit: Worthy of praise, but certainly not a masterpiece. Track 11 is one of the best solos I've ever heard - absolutely incredible, mostly from an innovative technical perspective.
Written by [user id=150641] on 22.03.2015 at 17:19
Best album of 2015 at the moment
I kind of like the BTBAM-sounding clean portions, but the extreme parts just aren't doing it for me. Altered Magnitudes is a good song though. They seem to do a better fast extreme than slow one. You're 100% entitled to your opinion, but please at least give a listen to the new A Forest of Stars, Leviathan, Enslaved, Death Karma, and Downfall of Nur before you make that statement. It's been a strong month or two in any case. I give this a 6.9.
Written by [user id=150641] on 22.03.2015 at 17:19
Best album of 2015 at the moment
I kind of like the BTBAM-sounding clean portions, but the extreme parts just aren't doing it for me.
Do you honestly believe this has any resemblance to BTBAM? I would highly encourage you to check out Obscura, Blotted Science, Aborted, Spawn of Possession and Noneuclid (some of the bands that make up this supergroup) and the solo work of Hannes Grossmann if you haven't already. It's not obvious to me that you've given them a shot. Your descriptions are very far from accurate yet AGAIN, and that should prevent anyone from taking your comments of this album seriously. I quote your mini-review: "Where things fall apart for me are the "extreme" portions which sound like a poorly produced hybrid of Mastodon and death/goth metal." To set the record straight, there's not a hint of Mastodon or goth metal on this record. Not at all. I appreciate the attempts to put down your thoughts about this kind of music, but you need to stick to talking about what you can characterize well (probably a style you've listened to for awhile). Either that or you need to put in the hard work to really understand the context in which the music is coming.
This album proves (once again) how irrelevant Hannes Grossmann and Christian Münzner are when they're not teaming up with Steffen Kummerer and Jeroen Paul Thesseling.
It's just one opinion. I hear something, I type it.
Yep, and I'm saying discontinue. It's a useless exercise if you aren't willing to learn what goes into a great review for people. You might not like the album, and that's perfectly acceptable, but it's painfully obvious you don't understand it based on what you wrote about it.
Yep, and I'm saying discontinue. It's a useless exercise if you aren't willing to learn what goes into a great review for people. You might not like the album, and that's perfectly acceptable, but it's painfully obvious you don't understand it based on what you wrote about it.
I won't be doing that. Some people like what I do, you're not the first to say you don't. Regardless, these minireviews are just my basic opinions of what I do and don't like this year. It's not meant to be profound. When I feel enough about an album to say more, I do a full review. I don't plan on doing that for this album due to what both of us have said so far. Have a super day.
One more thing, it's easy to criticize a review when you never write them...at least not anywhere where they have to be approved.
Yeah, making a Mastodon or goth metal reference on Alkaloid is not credible. Also, his mini-review on the new Chaos Divine made me go "my mind is full of fuck"
Yeah, making a Mastodon or goth metal reference on Alkaloid is not credible. Also, his mini-review on the new Chaos Divine made me go "my mind is full of fuck"
It amazes me how much people like you give me flack for what I do. I constantly encourage people to listen to stuff that I may not like (see pretty much every review I have written as well as the fact that I declined to score several such albums this year...including the one you just named). Meanwhile you all play Gestapo on people's opinions. Even taking the albums I reviewed most harshly in the past few months, Slipknot and Periphery, people are entitled to enjoy those albums. I just encourage them to step out and try some other things as well. I spend at least an hour each day promoting small bands in hopes that it will help them out. Several of these bands have thanked me. That is enough. My personal opinion was that there are other more deserving bands of my precious time this year than Alkaloid. And given the amount of positive support they are receiving from others here, I think they will have enough help as it is. Hopefully at least one of you actually pays for the album and spreads the word for them.
Written by [user id=150641] on 22.03.2015 at 17:19
Best album of 2015 at the moment
I kind of like the BTBAM-sounding clean portions, but the extreme parts just aren't doing it for me. Altered Magnitudes is a good song though. They seem to do a better fast extreme than slow one. You're 100% entitled to your opinion, but please at least give a listen to the new A Forest of Stars, Leviathan, Enslaved, Death Karma, and Downfall of Nur before you make that statement. It's been a strong month or two in any case. I give this a 6.9.
I think the Grossman penned tracks are better. I really liked the album. The Enslaved album is excellent but you prefer death metal. In the middle of checking out the A Forest of Stars album. The leviathan album dunno just didn't click. I am really liking the an autumn for crippled children album though.