http://www.idkfa.com/v3 idkfa: syndicated http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=7124&msg_id=7124 "If you replace the working parts / You get a different machine" kaiden@idkfa.com (kaiden) Pretty State Machine Thu, 10 Sep 2015 18:15:49 -0800 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=7124&msg_id=7124 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=7102&msg_id=7102 CROATOAN kitacek@idkfa.com (kitacek) Pretty State Machine Tue, 28 Jul 2015 15:48:10 -0800 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=7102&msg_id=7102 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=7021&msg_id=7021 Psycroptic Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Mon, 01 Jun 2015 18:20:28 -0800 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=7021&msg_id=7021 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=7020&msg_id=7020 The Decemberists - Make You Better kaiden@idkfa.com (kaiden) Pretty State Machine Fri, 29 May 2015 03:44:39 -0800 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=7020&msg_id=7020 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=7017&msg_id=7017 Terrapin Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Wed, 27 May 2015 18:11:31 -0800 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=7017&msg_id=7017 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6976&msg_id=6976 Citadel Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Tue, 17 Mar 2015 19:26:18 -0800 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6976&msg_id=6976 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6972&msg_id=6972 Shadows Across the Country Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Fri, 13 Mar 2015 14:16:23 -0800 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6972&msg_id=6972 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6970&msg_id=6971 This is one of the best metal EPs I have ever heard. I came in with some expectations due to high praise for this band across the interwebs, but the songs still managed to impress me. Both softer and more brutal than I expected, all of the disparate styles (of metal, plus prog rock) flow pretty seamlessly as each song progresses. An incredible independent debut. Great use of 8-string guitars as well! 4.5/5 - Exceptional metal EP, although not quite perfect (the second song, The Mountain Top, does interesting things with screaming vox but doesn't necessarily improve the listening experience IMHO). So much promise. They've since released a full length, can't wait to give it a listen. Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Fri, 13 Mar 2015 14:00:43 -0800 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6970&msg_id=6971 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6970&msg_id=6970 Song of the Crippled Bull Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Thu, 12 Mar 2015 20:34:59 -0800 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6970&msg_id=6970 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6967&msg_id=6969 I got this album for free from Google. All in all, not a bad album, there are some catchy tunes, but man the album falls apart after the first four songs (which are all excellent, and, yes, singles). I would compare this album to eating a lot of mass produced candy: it tastes great at the onset, but you realize too late you've eaten 4 servings and have a stomach ache. Also, much like Hershey's, they use weird ingredients to make the chocolate smooth in the form of samples and whatnot... which make many of the tunes catchier but do not hold up on repeated listens. 2.5/5 - OK, nothing special elevates this from normal radio music. No better, no worse. At least it's not Nickelback. Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Thu, 12 Mar 2015 20:33:09 -0800 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6967&msg_id=6969 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6968&msg_id=6968 I've only had like 12 waffles today, officer kitacek@idkfa.com (kitacek) Pretty State Machine Thu, 12 Mar 2015 19:23:13 -0800 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6968&msg_id=6968 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6967&msg_id=6967 Night Visions Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Thu, 12 Mar 2015 18:28:59 -0800 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6967&msg_id=6967 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6856&msg_id=6966 Went back in the vault and gave this one a thorough judging. Interesting independent release from Hungary, progressive death metal with female soprano vox. Overall, an enjoyable listen, but pretty derivative - you can certainly hear that these guys are fans of Opeth and Dream Theater. Could have used a little more editing. 3.0/5 - Good album, definitely back-loaded (not a fan of the first couple of tracks). I don't get the amount of praise this is getting around the web, although it certainly is stellar for a debut (and independent, at that!). Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Thu, 12 Mar 2015 18:08:59 -0800 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6856&msg_id=6966 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6955&msg_id=6962 This was a tough album to digest. Although titled Language, the lyrics were (ironically) not included with the CD and are pretty symbolic. But, after researching them online and listening to the album a bazillion times, I finally understand the concept and my mind was kind of blown. It's summarized in spoken word (apparently by a man named Allan Waits) at the end of the album: "In other words, the so-called involuntary circulation of your blood is one continuous process with the stars shining. If you find out it's YOU who circulates your blood, you will at the same moment find out that you are shining the sun. Because your physical organism is one continuous process with everything else that's going on. Just as the waves are continuous with the ocean. Your body is continuous with the total energy system of the cosmos, and it's all you. Only you're playing the game that you're only this bit of it." You are the language... OF THE COSMOS, trying to understand itself. Being a materialistic in denial (because it's just too depressing), this concept is fascinating to me. But besides the lyrical content, what about the music? Here the album falls a little short, because I feel like it doesn't completely match the concept. The idea of ebb and flow is persistent in the lyrics, but doesn't translate well to the music because nothing repeats, like, ever. On the entire album. I feel like some sort of ebb and flow in musical motifs would have been helpful to convey the message a bit better. That being said... the compositions are amazing, if altogether a bit too meandering. It also contributes to making this album pretty impenetrable until at least half a dozen listens. 3.5/5 - Very good. Love the lyrical concept, wished the music matched it a bit better. The compositions are amazing in a vacuum, but are too meandering too completely stick with you. Wanted to rate this one higher, but here we are; I think back to Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Tue, 10 Mar 2015 14:44:39 -0800 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6955&msg_id=6962 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6955&msg_id=6955 Language Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Mon, 09 Mar 2015 18:59:30 -0800 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6955&msg_id=6955 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6952&msg_id=6954 I fell in love with El-P and Killer Mike because of Run the Jewels, which is far and away my most beloved hip hop group. RTJ and RTJ2 are just both SO GOOD. Because of this, I wanted to go back and see each of these artists prior to their collaboration. I found out that they had met each other while doing El-P's Cancer 4 Cure album (and also because El-P produced Killer Mike's R.A.P. Music, which I also own). So of course I went and got it. This is a pretty dark album. Apparently El-P described it as "fight music abstracted"... and it certainly does have a sort of slow burning anger surrounding it, like there is a mob just on the outside of the soundstage ready to burst in. It was also apparently recorded as an homage to a friend of his who died of cancer a few years prior to the recording. In any case, whatever sad muse it might be, this album is pretty awesome, and a solid precursor to Run the Jewels. In fact, many of the songs have proto-beats found on RTJ and RTJ2. 3.5/5 - Very good hip hop album. Nowhere near RTJ or RTJ2, but still a solid listen from front to back. Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Mon, 09 Mar 2015 18:57:57 -0800 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6952&msg_id=6954 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6952&msg_id=6952 Cancer 4 Cure Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Thu, 05 Mar 2015 13:30:41 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6952&msg_id=6952 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6950&msg_id=6951 This is one of those albums that is kind of hard to judge. It's certainly well done for the subgenre (orchestral melodic blackened death metal, since I love playing the metal subgenre game), but it brings absolutely nothing new to the table. It's the perfect blend of Dimmu Borgir, Old Man's Child, and a more modern metal approach, but it is not as accomplished as any of those individual elements. The lyrics are definitely grim enough, but each song ends up kind of sounding the same, there is just very little variety to the approach. The upside is that I got this album for super cheap in some bundle... I'm such a music junky, that's how I roll son! 2.5/5 - Just OK. While I enjoyed it to a certain extent, and the production is generally pretty good, I just don't see any reason to really come back to this album. Solid but forgettable. Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Thu, 05 Mar 2015 13:28:04 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6950&msg_id=6951 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6950&msg_id=6950 The Cancer Empire Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Tue, 03 Mar 2015 19:15:37 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6950&msg_id=6950 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6948&msg_id=6949 Got this EP for free from GooglePlay (thanks kind overlords!). I have not listened to any LUDAAAAA before. However, I must say I was pleasently surprised by it. Much more musical than I expected, although with pretty familiar melodies and beats. LUDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA has a pretty interesting cadence that keeps things interesting, although I wish the lyrics were less about how rich he is. Because fuck rich people. 2.5/5 - Easily digestible hip hop. Not bad, but nothing really special about it. Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Tue, 03 Mar 2015 19:15:08 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6948&msg_id=6949 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6948&msg_id=6948 Burning Bridges Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Mon, 02 Mar 2015 20:29:50 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6948&msg_id=6948 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6946&msg_id=6947 Been a while since I listened the this album, but everything Mastodon does is incredible. This album is by far their most technical, with tight, short songs that flop around like a dying animal in the jaws of a cougar on a mountainside. 4.0/5 - Great, but a tad inaccessible to really achieve total greatness (like Leviathan or Crack the Skye). Also, the concept (dying on a mountain) makes the lyrics a bit too trippy for my tastes. Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Mon, 02 Mar 2015 20:28:52 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6946&msg_id=6947 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6946&msg_id=6946 Blood Mountain Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Mon, 02 Mar 2015 18:28:22 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6946&msg_id=6946 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6938&msg_id=6945 So, Blood & Banjos was a kickstarted album that I backed... probably a couple of years ago. I don't know when, but a CD showed up at my house one day and it turned out to be this. Thus is how most of my kickstarter rewards go. Anyways, I love unique metal interpretations. In this case, black metal combined with bluegrass, which has the awesome genre tag of blackgrass (blue metal just doesn't have the same jingle jangle). Thus, I expected to get banjo leads of black metal rasping vocals and blastbeats. However, the album doesn't play out like that, really, at all. Instead, you have a fairly good bluegrass-y baseline with blackened death metal interjections (and a healthy dose of Gothenburg riffage). More often then not, the parts aren't integrated, and it makes for something more akin to an early Opeth album than a progressive amalgamation of the two styles. I mean, of course it is a concept album (about a guy killing his wife and unborn child after being corrupted by Satan, and then fighting the village, and then he battles Satan for redemption... I mean, it's metal, come on). However, the last track truly starts to combine the two styles, and it is pretty great; plus, it is an epic in every sense of the word, since it's over 14 minutes long! Great capper, and the album builds to a pretty sweet culmination before the acoustic outro kicks in to cleanse the palate. 3.0/5 - It's good, especially for a cheap kickstarter project (I know the creators made no money off of this thing, since you can download it for free now!). The finale is truly impressive with the blending of styles, but the rest of the album doesn't quite get there. Still a worthwhile listen if you like some metal, and some bluegrass, and want some peanut butter in your chocolate. Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Mon, 02 Mar 2015 18:27:53 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6938&msg_id=6945 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6943&msg_id=6944 Nice. kaiden@idkfa.com (kaiden) Pretty State Machine Thu, 26 Feb 2015 12:14:21 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6943&msg_id=6944 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6943&msg_id=6943 My CPU is a neural net processor; a learning computer kitacek@idkfa.com (kitacek) Pretty State Machine Thu, 26 Feb 2015 12:06:34 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6943&msg_id=6943 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6938&msg_id=6940 Reminds me of this. Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Wed, 25 Feb 2015 13:23:41 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6938&msg_id=6940 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6938&msg_id=6939 Spartacus: Blood & Banjos would have been a very different show. kaiden@idkfa.com (kaiden) Pretty State Machine Wed, 25 Feb 2015 12:16:03 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6938&msg_id=6939 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6938&msg_id=6938 Blood & Banjos Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Tue, 24 Feb 2015 21:09:56 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6938&msg_id=6938 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6936&msg_id=6937 This album is somewhat interesting, in that it was released as two discs that could fit onto one disc length... which is bold. The longer first disc is the melodic side, and the second, shorter half is the more metal (cathartic) side. Sense any cliches yet? So I've actually met the pretty boy vocalist for the melodic (Illusion) half of this album, when he was fronting a different but almost identical sounding band called Tesseract. And that points out the main flaw of this album: it is pretty standard fare melodic djent. You have the djent-toned rhythmic guitars, soaring melodies, and ethereal soundscapes, combined with a few breakdowns and screaming vocals. It's well done, but man the style has been WAY overdone (even by 2012 when this album was released). I suppose it's pretty heavy on the melodies... but still firmly djent. The Chaos side is harsher, but honestly the more boring listen. While the first half employs some interesting dynamics, the second half feels a bit one dimensional in comparison and suffers for it. It honestly needed to be heavier somehow. 3.0/5 - Just a good album, slightly above average for the style. I'll probably come back to a couple of songs on the Illusion half. Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Tue, 24 Feb 2015 21:08:09 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6936&msg_id=6937 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6936&msg_id=6936 Blinding White Noise: Illusion & Chaos Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Fri, 20 Feb 2015 14:25:56 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6936&msg_id=6936 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6912&msg_id=6935 I keeping coming back to this album. I've forgotten how much I love Blind Guardian, the music is just incredible! Beyond epic! Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Fri, 20 Feb 2015 14:09:34 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6912&msg_id=6935 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6932&msg_id=6934 Holy frenetic album, Batman! Destrage is like a more technical version of Every Time I Die, which is to say, screaming, singing, growling, noodling, and breakdowns just jammed into songs seemingly at random (although much more coherent with familiarity)! While this style of frantic ADHD composition is certainly an acquired taste, this album really grew on me after a few listens (and was rather off-putting at first! The singer is almost grating and takes some getting used to). Although, you still have to be in the mood, or else it's like ear shrapnel. All in all, the compositions are fascinating, with styles thrown into a blender (a nice, like a Vitamix) and blended into a concoction that somehow works. Although the base (in this case, metal for banana), as with every good smoothie, is the backbone that makes it all come together. 3.5/5 - Incredibly well executed for the style, and quite interesting... it is just a bit too overwhelming and exhausting to give higher praise. This Dillinger Escape Plan meets Every Time I Die hasn't been my cup of tea since the early to mid oughts, but if you like that style then listen to it now! It's the best I've heard in quite a long time. Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Fri, 20 Feb 2015 14:03:43 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6932&msg_id=6934 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6925&msg_id=6933 After the overblown insanity of Blind Guardian, I figured I'd go listen to a nice stripped down EP from The Decemberists. This EP is outtakes and leftovers from their 2011 album The King is Dead (which I rather enjoyed), and it doesn't fall far from the tree in terms of sound (i.e., folk-country meets REM). First tracks are good swinging folky tunes, while the quality falls a little on the latter half. Nice straightforward music. 3.0/5 - Nice little EP, but I'll probably just go back to the main album for this sound if I want it. Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Mon, 16 Feb 2015 18:31:58 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6925&msg_id=6933 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6932&msg_id=6932 Are You Kidding Me? No. Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Mon, 16 Feb 2015 18:29:20 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6932&msg_id=6932 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6925&msg_id=6925 Long Live the King Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Fri, 13 Feb 2015 15:11:40 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6925&msg_id=6925 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6923&msg_id=6924 This was a fun album to go back and listen to after a few years. While this is pretty similar to Beyond the Red Mirror, it is less dense because the orchestration is gone and replaced with synths and guitars. The vocal harmonies are still mindblowingly epic, layered, and complex... and still catchy as hell! I honestly don't know how Hansi Kursch comes up with this stuff, it's incredible. The album in general is quite good, with a strong start and unbelievable finish with the knockout 1-2-3 combo of Bright Eyes (one of their best songs ever), Another Holy War, and And the Story Ends (one of the best album closers ever). The story is ridiculous and convoluted, but as I said previously... I'm here for the music, and it is top-notch. 4.5/5 - Excellent album, almost a classic. Blind Guardian does things with music that no one else does. Cheesy concept album, but that kind of comes with power metal. Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Fri, 13 Feb 2015 15:11:19 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6923&msg_id=6924 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6923&msg_id=6923 Imaginations from the Other Side Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Fri, 13 Feb 2015 12:59:59 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6923&msg_id=6923 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6912&msg_id=6922 Oh, Blind Guardian. Their brand of power metal is like an incredibly complex cheese. If all you've eaten is sharp cheddar, you probably won't like it: the dozens of layered vocal tracks on top of the dual guitar attack on top of drums mixed with an electronic drum machine on top of bass on top of two 90-person choirs on top of three international symphonies is akin to eating all the French cheese varieties whose names you can't pronounce and having them paired with fine wine. However, if you're like me, and have listened to so much music that you demand complexity or uniqueness in your music, it is a delicacy that cannot be passed up. Thus is the newest Blind Guardian offering. Naturally, it's concept album, and, in fact, a sequel to their highly regarded 1995 album Imaginations from the Other Side. I honestly don't know what the fuck the story is, and I've even gone to listening to each album back to back to try and immerse myself in it more thoroughly! Something about the realm of gods... and another realm via a red mirror... and a holy war... In any case, the story is secondary to the music, which is just impossibly dense and mostly incredibly catchy and brilliant. No one does epic like Blind Guardian. Unfortunately, because there is SO MUCH going on, the mix is peculiar in a few ways (vocals, choirs and orchestras are pretty high in the mix, leaving other aspects a bit muddy). It is an album that can only be enjoyed via headphones, the higher fidelity the better. Otherwise the intricacies just get lost. 4.0/5 - Great album. All in all, this album took me a while to get into, but after a few listens, I think it's a winner. It's overlong, a bit overblow, and probably too dense with a mix that doesn't help (but may have been necessary, given the complexities). Probably their best since A Nightfall in Middle-Earth, and on par with Imaginations from the Other Side. Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Thu, 12 Feb 2015 20:15:44 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6912&msg_id=6922 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6912&msg_id=6912 Beyond the Red Mirror Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Mon, 09 Feb 2015 17:29:15 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6912&msg_id=6912 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6856&msg_id=6856 Presentiment Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Thu, 11 Dec 2014 14:35:52 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6856&msg_id=6856 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6853&msg_id=6855 For a Christmas album, this is great (maybe even classic, 5.0/5). Apparently, it's the highest charting Christmas album since 1962. However, this makes sense, as a cappella lends itself quite well to these classic tunes (some of which have been rearranged in interesting and awesome ways). Highly recommended if you need a Christmas song fix. Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Thu, 11 Dec 2014 14:35:37 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6853&msg_id=6855 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6853&msg_id=6853 That's Christmas to Me Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Tue, 09 Dec 2014 18:34:42 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6853&msg_id=6853 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6851&msg_id=6851 Sun Eater Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Fri, 05 Dec 2014 18:03:19 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6851&msg_id=6851 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6850&msg_id=6850 Deathless Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Thu, 04 Dec 2014 18:17:09 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6850&msg_id=6850 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6848&msg_id=6849 The best death metal supergroup of all time is finally back! Being a HUGE fun of their previous releases, I was a little anxious about this one because Mikael Akerfeldt was no longer on growling duties. He was replaced by Nick Holmes of Paradise Lost fame, a doom (NOT death) metal band that primarily utilizes him as a singer (not growler). Initially, I was not a fan of the vocals at all. The somewhat raspy vocals that replaced the monster growls of previous Bloodbath albums were underwhelming. However, upon multiple listens, I realized the music was subtly different sounding than previous albums... and were designed with a crusty edge that fits almost perfectly with Holmes' raspy take on growls. In fact, the throwback sound really started to remind me quite a bit of Vallenfyre (perhaps the second best death metal supergroup of all time). The riffs and drumming are incredible, as on all Bloodbath albums, and harken back to the good ol' days of death metal. Lyrically, this album is perhaps a bit less tongue in cheek and more straightforward than past releases, but still fun... in a brutally Metalocalypse sort of way. 3.5/5 - Very good, although doesn't live up to past releases. The new sound is not really an improvement to me, although it all fits together very well. Really, they absolutely nail the early to mid 90s sound that they're going for... I'm just not the biggest fan of that era of death metal. Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Thu, 04 Dec 2014 18:09:54 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6848&msg_id=6849 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6848&msg_id=6848 Grand Morbid Funeral Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Tue, 02 Dec 2014 15:59:18 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6848&msg_id=6848 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6804&msg_id=6823 The vinyl version of this album kills. I just replaced my cartridge, but I'm struggling with proper alignment - hopefully it only gets better! Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Mon, 17 Nov 2014 14:31:31 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6804&msg_id=6823 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6822&msg_id=6822 Walking on a Flashlight Beam Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Mon, 17 Nov 2014 14:30:33 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6822&msg_id=6822 http://www.idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6810&msg_id=6821 I love me some Eluveitie. One of my favorite concerts of all time was seeing them perform with Amon Amarth. They have so many instruments, all of which are played well, that it just blends together to make some truly memorable folk metal. For the last two albums (although present throughout), they really take their pagan heritage seriously with the lyrical themes (they are from Switzerland, which is a melting pot of German [read: Helvetian], Roman, and French influences). Unfortunately, this album feels more like a retread of Helvetios, which was simply a better album. While I like this album, they're going to need to inject something new on the next outing. 3.0/5 - Good overall album, but the individual songs aren't as memorable as past releases. Still one of the best folk metal bands around! Scrotor@idkfa.com (Scrotor) Pretty State Machine Mon, 17 Nov 2014 14:28:29 -0900 http://idkfa.com/v3/v_thread.php?thread_id=6810&msg_id=6821