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Post by frozenfire on Feb 8, 2021 16:19:23 GMT -6
The album is finished and will be produced with a 20 page booklet in digipak form. A special preorder is up at: www.Shadowsofparagon.comIt's the signed album, t-shirt, and Through The Valley of the Shadow Within for 25 euros. Unfortunately the shipping internationally is 17 euros. It comes out to be 53 dollars U.S. Perhaps there will be other options in the future? Details here as well:
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Post by Bartimaeus on Mar 4, 2021 8:55:34 GMT -6
Listening to the album on Bandcamp (or at least, what has been released), this stuff is fantastic. Great lyrics and great music, will certainly scratch your BM itch.
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Post by Deepfriar on Mar 9, 2021 22:43:47 GMT -6
Looking into getting this ASAP. One of the most underrated bands in the CBM scene.
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Post by sonofnun on Mar 15, 2021 19:29:48 GMT -6
I wanted to pre-order so I could get the shirt but it's expensive and the website was showing security issues. I just got the CD from VoG. Maybe I can get the shirt later.
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Post by frozenfire on Mar 20, 2021 17:35:53 GMT -6
The whole album is out. I don't have the physical release but they've sent all the files with lyrics and explanations. Looking forward to digging into this more over the next week and hopefully the album won't be too far behind.
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Post by nocturnaliridescence on Mar 21, 2021 11:19:14 GMT -6
OH WOW.
Listening now. Genuinely legendary. What's better is, the album doesn't get insanely boring after the first few songs, which tends to always happen with albums like this. The album keeps up its own momentum!
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Post by nocturnaliridescence on Mar 21, 2021 12:30:14 GMT -6
Update: I posted about this album on a secular forum. One guy just said "no", and two complained about the drums.
This shit will literally NEVER change I swear. If we could somehow take De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas and re-release it under a Christian band name without anyone noticing, I 100% guarantee the album would get slammed just because "it's Christian" and the scene would scrutinize it harder instead of making a golden calf out of it. Completely blind, the whole lot of them.
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Post by archdukeofmetal on Apr 13, 2021 21:33:33 GMT -6
Update: I posted about this album on a secular forum. One guy just said "no", and two complained about the drums. This shit will literally NEVER change I swear. If we could somehow take De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas and re-release it under a Christian band name without anyone noticing, I 100% guarantee the album would get slammed just because "it's Christian" and the scene would scrutinize it harder instead of making a golden calf out of it. Completely blind, the whole lot of them. I’m checking it out now. Honestly, I agree with the drum complaints. The sound is absolutely terrible, and there isn’t much interesting going on with them. Drums can make or break an album in regards to sound. I’ve always enjoyed Shadows of Paragon, and everything else I’m hearing is good, but there is a reason people spend a good chunk of recording budget on drums. Will definitely give this album a full listen at some point though.
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Post by _ on Apr 14, 2021 21:12:24 GMT -6
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Post by archdukeofmetal on Apr 15, 2021 11:35:50 GMT -6
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Post by Thomas Eversole on Apr 15, 2021 12:52:42 GMT -6
Honestly, I agree with the drum complaints. The sound is absolutely terrible, and there isn’t much interesting going on with them. I know I'm the hard of hearing person here, but what's wrong with the drums? They have my interest. He blasts, which many bands either don't do, or do a faster drill instead of actually blasting, or sound like they're struggling to maintain tempo when they do blast. I'm not hearing anything bad about them when I listen. The production for the drums reminds me of the drums sound multiple black metal bands had in the 90s. Dark Funeral's "Secret of the Black Arts", Enslaved's "Loke", Lord Belial's "Belial, Northern Price of Peace", Immortal's "The Call of the Wintermoon", Dawn's "Eyesland"... I could go on... there is a reason people spend a good chunk of recording budget on drums. I need to hear more drum complaints for the Orationem album that's releasing on CD tomorrow then. LOL I use 1 strategically placed mic on my 7 piece to record into my free software. In all fairness though, $0 is still a good chunk of my recording budget. This shit will literally NEVER change I swear. If we could somehow take De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas and re-release it under a Christian band name without anyone noticing, I 100% guarantee the album would get slammed just because "it's Christian" and the scene would scrutinize it harder instead of making a golden calf out of it. Completely blind, the whole lot of them. I've seen this too; where a Christian black metal release is decent production and fairly tight and its sound(s) get nitpicked into the ground, meanwhile a secular black metal release with practically identical production (or worse, or better), and each song has some slop and looseness or power-chord-only boredom, but its praised ad infinitum. ...I can't help but think any lyrical mention of righteousness, collapses the listening processes of listeners who are unrighteous. Likewise, the bias would rotate should the band sound the same but just be located elsewhere. I'd almost bet if Shadows of Paragon were located in the US, and their album still sounded like this, detractors wouldn't even mention the drums, but instead hoist up the matra of "Americans just don't do black metal as well as Europeans".
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Post by julienbakerfan on Apr 15, 2021 20:51:00 GMT -6
I've seen this too; where a Christian black metal release is decent production and fairly tight and its sound(s) get nitpicked into the ground, meanwhile a secular black metal release with practically identical production (or worse, or better), and each song has some slop and looseness or power-chord-only boredom, but its praised ad infinitum. This must be a black metal thing; Christian metal releases in other metal subgenres usually get this "Yeah, it's Christian, but..."
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Post by nocturnaliridescence on Apr 15, 2021 21:01:36 GMT -6
I'd almost bet if Shadows of Paragon were located in the US, and their album still sounded like this, detractors wouldn't even mention the drums, but instead hoist up the matra of "Americans just don't do black metal as well as Europeans". Exactly. I haven't specifically thought this about Shadows of Paragon but I've thought it many, many times.
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Post by progton777 on Apr 16, 2021 3:15:09 GMT -6
I love the album, got also the T-shirt recently This band has a special place in my heart
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Post by archdukeofmetal on Apr 16, 2021 20:38:28 GMT -6
The sound of this one compared to Through the Valley Within (which is an incredible album) sounds tinny. The drums sound either like they are programmed with bad software, or triggered and overly produced. It doesn’t have that organic sound of drums being recorded in a good room. Personally, I don’t give a fuck what the lyrical content is; there are tons of Christian black metal releases where everything sounds great: Horde, Crimson Moonlight, Antestor etc. I think the issue with most is they cut corners and use drum machines or poor spaces with overproduction and that’s why it gets the negative response. I say the same for any secular black metal that has drums that sound like that. I still really enjoy SoP, but the drums are a hard no for me on this one.
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Post by frozenfire on Apr 24, 2021 11:33:54 GMT -6
Got this a few weeks ago. I also balked at the drums at first, the drum production having a lot of high end and virtually no low end. Yet, I think my expectations are what actually bothered me most. Through the Valley of the Shadow Within had fantastic production in that area. This is just worse. That's not what I expected 12 years later.
However, after a few listens, I have no real problem with them. On every other level they nailed it. The packaging for the album is incredible, the quality of the t-shirt that came with it is extremely high and the actual clarity and quality of the sound here on everything but the drums is outstanding. This is all not to mention that overall I prefer the songs here as a whole to the TTVotSW. Great album.
Much happier with this than Crimson Moonlight's return. Hoping Divine Symphony's next album can hold up to "The History." That's another highly anticipated "return" album.
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Post by nocturnaliridescence on Apr 24, 2021 18:51:15 GMT -6
Divine Symphony have been talking about a new album, and disappearing, and coming back since like 2013. I'm VERY excited for it! It's just... man, can anything live up to 8 years of hype???
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Post by frozenfire on Dec 21, 2021 7:21:25 GMT -6
After all this time I can't figure out what would actually be wrong with the drums. I guess the snare sounds sloppy in mix? Been listening to this with headphones today and it sounds so solid!
As for the band, they have a style that for me is more similar to what Dawn was doing on Slaughtersun (one of my favorite albums of all time). Hugely melodic yet blasting through and through. Obviously this isn't as epic or nuanced but it reminds me of it. I'll be listening to this more and more as the year goes out. Glad I came back to it again.
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Post by julienbakerfan on Dec 22, 2021 11:45:05 GMT -6
The drums sound terrible to me. It's not the playing that's bad, it's the actual sound of the drums. No low end at all. It sounds like the band used the cheapest sample pack they could find and didn't bother adjusting the velocity of each hit.
Maybe this is intentional; if so, it doesn't work for me at all.
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