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Post by barabbas on Nov 16, 2016 23:04:36 GMT -6
What makes or breaks music for you? What counts in its favor and gives you a better chance of liking it? What turns you off and makes it hard for you to like it?
I've noticed that opinions of these kinds are often mentioned on this board (most recently about the intelligibility of lyrics). So I thought I'd start a thread dedicated to it. I suppose these preferences may be mostly in reference to CBM, but I put the thread here in case people want to branch out.
I'll start: If music has synthesized guitars or guitars that sound synthesized, it's really hard for me to like it. This is what happened to me with Neversatan and Dark Woods. I wanted to like them, but once it seemed to me that the guitars weren't real, I couldn't get over it. There are some tracks on Falconry that are like that for me, too.
I like when music has prominent and good bass lines. This is probably because bass is what I have primarily been playing. Lament and Lo-Ruhamah fit this category for me.
Although I love progressive elements, when there are things that seem to be weird only for weirdness's sake, I'm not too into it. The handclaps on Sanctifica's Negative B are like this for me.
I feel like I'm picky about vocals sometimes. I'm not as keen on clean vocals in metal unless they're well done. I do like Negative B, but the clean vocals aren't as strong as I'd wish. I think I'd like Kekal a lot better if the clean vocals were better. I feel like he's regularly sliding into notes.
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Post by Thomas Eversole on Nov 17, 2016 3:00:08 GMT -6
I think my biggest pet peeve has to do with drums. This will probably sound egotistical, but the less a band's drumming would sound like my own drumming, the less I'd like it.
It's weird though. Some drum machines sound fake and it totally ruins the music visual for me... (quirk: everything I listen to, I mentally picture myself performing it)
If the drum machine is beyond fake to being abstract, I could like it again though.
Blasts. That really fast kick-snare-kick-snare beat that is all over what I listen to and what I myself play. If extreme metal bands suck at blasting, like sounding like they're struggling or they just don't blast at all, then it bugs me.
Please GO FASTER
Triggers. I wouldn't quite put it the way Slayer commented to Cradle of Filth's drummer Adrian (which was something along the lines of "yeah you drum fast, but you hit like a f**") but yeah... triggers suck. If you're going to play the drums, play them with real strength.
If you don't know what drum triggers are, it's a mic technique to where you get a full kick and snare sound with just the littlest tap. Like hit as hard as you would with two fingers drumming on a desk for a full kick or snare drum sound on a kit. Ya hit extremely light, you can SOUND like you're going insanely fast for a really long time. Perfect example - Trym's drumming on Emperor's IX Equilibrium album.
Lame.
Guitars, I'm less picky. Of course I prefer the wall of sound approach, if you couldn't tell from everything I write...
Production is sometimes a pet peeve for me. I love lo-fi and super raw stuff, because that shows artistry... but if it's a sloppy mix (Like so many bands have their vocals too loud in the mix) or if it's cleaner than a pop album, That's a real bummer. Example that comes to mind is the newest Crimson Moonlight. It's recording is so clean and sterile, it's sounds robotic.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 17, 2016 7:21:15 GMT -6
For me, it varies from genre to genre.
In hardcore punk, the vocals make or break the music about 90% of the time for me. I'm really picky with vocalists for that genre.
In black metal, a ridiculously thin guitar tone ruins it for me. I also don't like lo-fi walls of sound (but better produced walls of sound like Orationem I can enjoy).
I don't like it when every single song on an album sounds almost exactly the same.
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Post by nocturnaliridescence on Nov 17, 2016 12:01:28 GMT -6
If metal is played in a "normal" style, it has to be really good for me to like it. Otherwise I find it boring. It's always been that way. For example, I love O Majestic Winter's first album, but I can't get into Crimson Moonlight. There are a few exceptions to this (like Ceifadores and Soterion), but yeah. Production is pretty much a case-by-case thing with me. Black metal that's overproduced, even to the point that it sounds like a pop album, can work in theory, but only if the music is written with that kind of production in mind. You can't just cover a Horde song and give it a Rick Rubin production job. On the other hand, I think I would like Nephesh's first album a lot more if the production were better. The same pretty much goes for any other genre - any kind of production can work in theory, but if the production doesn't fit the music, there has to be a reason for it. Of course there are exceptions for bands who just have lower budgets. The louder and harsher vocals are, the more I like them. This and this are perfect. (TURN YOUR VOLUME DOWN) With clean vocals, I'm not as picky. Basically as long as it doesn't sound like someone's quietly mumbling into the mic/recorder, it's fine. I even like autotune a lot of times. The one thing I don't like, though, is weak death growls. Or those like, half-growl half-clean gruff vocals that a lot of hardcore and thrash bands do. They can work, but I'm really picky about them. I've gotta be honest, I'm pretty indifferent to the electric guitar. Unless there are a bunch of really obvious mistakes (War EP, lol) I don't really mind either way. It can be tremolo picking, it can be chugging, it could just be sprinkled throughout the song, it could be a wall of noise, it could literally not be a guitar at all and just be a bunch of static, I don't mind. Pretty much the same thing with drums. They can be blasting, they could be playing a hip-hop beat, as long as it fits the music in some way, I don't mind. Though I slightly prefer blasting. I LOVE experimental / avant-garde stuff in my music.
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Post by xianmetaldoc on Nov 18, 2016 11:32:01 GMT -6
My two biggest pet peeves is when bands don't take risks and when they try to sound like someone else. I don't mind when they wear their influences on their sleeves, but I expect them to create their own sound based on those influences and not just be imitators.
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Post by Kerrick on Nov 18, 2016 11:43:16 GMT -6
^Within the Christian scene, this is especially true. How many "Christian alternative to [insert-better-secular-band-here]" do we need? But when a band truly paves their own way (like Virgin Black, for example), it's all the more special.
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Post by Thomas Eversole on Nov 18, 2016 19:48:44 GMT -6
I think some of that is people using something as a reference, since they don't know how else to describe it.
Someone on the Nordicfest forums commented that Orationem sounded like Antestor. My initial response was a mental knee jerk "uh.... noooo?". ...but I thought about it, if they don't listen to secular black metal and Antestor was all they were familiar with in this scene, yes, Orationem sounds more like Antestor than it does say Mortification or Tourniquet.
I've heard a decent amount of Christian black metal I think. Some of the bands kinda sound like each other, with the meh drumming and music box synth. ...but I wouldn't say the "Horde sounds like Marduk", "Hazeroth sounds like Mayhem", "Orationem sounds like Deathspell Omega", etc. Has to do so much with the band sounding like the secular counterpart, as someone is just trying to compare it to something similar.
Imperial Dusk is the only Christian band I'd say is a Dummy Burger clone. Don't get me started on the piles of secular DB clones...
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Post by Thomas Eversole on Nov 18, 2016 19:55:59 GMT -6
Production is pretty much a case-by-case thing with me. Black metal that's overproduced, even to the point that it sounds like a pop album, can work in theory, but only if the music is written with that kind of production in mind. You can't just cover a Horde song and give it a Rick Rubin production job. Very good points. Can't think of a black metal example though...
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Post by nocturnaliridescence on Nov 18, 2016 21:30:23 GMT -6
Very good points. Can't think of a black metal example though... The closest thing I can think of right now would probably be Dying Blaze. Imperial Dusk is the only Christian band I'd say is a Dummy Burger clone. What do you think of Nephesh? Going by what little I've heard from Dimmu Borgir, they seem pretty similar to me.
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Post by Thomas Eversole on Nov 18, 2016 21:44:09 GMT -6
Dying Blaze isn't over produced. They've got a cleaner sound, but it's not as sterile as Crimson Moonlight's newest.
All I've heard of Nephesh was low quality live concert footage on YouTube. Dimmu Borgir is well orchestrated (literally), symphonic and well produced. From what I've heard, I'm not getting why Nephesh would be compared to DB?
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Post by Deleted on Nov 18, 2016 21:55:22 GMT -6
I think Nephesh is generally considered to be compositionally similar to Dimmu Borgir, but more poorly produced.
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Post by Thomas Eversole on Nov 18, 2016 21:58:56 GMT -6
I found some Nephesh online. Wow, the orchestration on that is really cool. I could see some resemblances to the newer orchestrated Dimmu Borgir albums, and that's a good thing in my opinion. I'd say it's closer to sounding like some Bishop of Hexen, if I was going to make a comparison, but it's definitely not a clone of anything I've heard.
How many albums does this band have?
If you haven't heard much DB, watch the music video for the song Dimmu Borgir. Perfect example of their new orchestrated sound.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 18, 2016 22:06:59 GMT -6
I think Nephesh has an album and an EP, both released by Nokternal Hemizphear. I have the album (Inter Armas Silent Leges), but I honestly haven't listened to it very much.
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Post by nocturnaliridescence on Nov 18, 2016 22:29:52 GMT -6
Inter Armas Silent Leges is their debut. A bit darker, but a lot rawer. Hated by This World is their EP with real orchestral instruments and better production. They haven't released anything else yet - no updates on their progress since 2014.
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Post by Thomas Eversole on Nov 19, 2016 9:45:34 GMT -6
Wasn't there a thread made where Nephesh called it quits? Or am I thinking of another band?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2017 13:03:08 GMT -6
I think some of that is people using something as a reference, since they don't know how else to describe it. Someone on the Nordicfest forums commented that Orationem sounded like Antestor. My initial response was a mental knee jerk "uh.... noooo?". ...but I thought about it, if they don't listen to secular black metal and Antestor was all they were familiar with in this scene, yes, Orationem sounds more like Antestor than it does say Mortification or Tourniquet. I've heard a decent amount of Christian black metal I think. Some of the bands kinda sound like each other, with the meh drumming and music box synth. ...but I wouldn't say the "Horde sounds like Marduk", "Hazeroth sounds like Mayhem", "Orationem sounds like Deathspell Omega", etc. Has to do so much with the band sounding like the secular counterpart, as someone is just trying to compare it to something similar. Imperial Dusk is the only Christian band I'd say is a Dummy Burger clone. Don't get me started on the piles of secular DB clones... Maybe I just haven't heard enough of their music, but Imperial Dusk doesn't sound much like Dimmu Borgir to me. I've only heard Black Priest of Satanic Blood Rituals that was recently put out on Christian Metal Underground. No symphonic stuff on it. I love it!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2017 14:03:14 GMT -6
Black Priest of Satanic Blood Rituals is one of their older albums that just got re-released. Northern Hordes is the Imperial Dusk album that clones Dimmu Borgir.
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Post by _ on Apr 3, 2017 18:46:45 GMT -6
Northern Hordes is the Imperial Dusk album that clones Dimmu Borgir. Annoyed that I paid money to support that.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2017 18:48:20 GMT -6
Annoyed that I paid money to support that. Same.
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Post by Bartimaeus on Apr 3, 2017 18:56:02 GMT -6
Same
^Yep. Very little redeeming value in that purchase.
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