Traveling_Alone

^Loved that album. The original album they released is actually the better of the two full lengths they currently have out, imo. Although that's simply my opinion which is worth you know... nothing.

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“And when at last you find someone to whom you feel you can pour out your soul, you stop in shock at the words you utter— they are so rusty, so ugly, so meaningless and feeble from being kept in the small cramped dark inside you so long.”

― Sylvia Plath

Plainview

Don't say that! Your opinion is worth at least as little as everyone else's!

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bob.

i honestly think my next album may redeem myself in your eyes

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A kiss is the beginning of cannibalism.

Reach out, pierce the fine fabric of the sheltering sky, take repose.

Josef K

I hope so - Angels of Light are great. I think you picked the right one, too, although I like How I Loved You a little more most days.

Goofle

Carly Rae.

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Trollheart

Title: Everything is good here/Please come home
Artiste: The Angels of Light
Genre: Folk
Familiarity: Zero

1. Palisades: So this is a spinoff band from Swans, eh? Well this opening track is lovely, all tinkling bells and soft piano, something like mandolin --- oh, it's a banjo – and a nice vocal, kind of dark folk in its way. Reminds me of Nick Cave or Lou Reed. Nice sudden group vocal near the end and it gets more intense.
2. All souls' rising: This is stronger, driven on guitar with a faster rhythm and a kind of chant running through it. Not as mad about this one. Bit too forceful. Harmonica is nice.
3. Kosinsky: This has a very definite U2 “Bad” feel to it, touches of Lloyd Cole too. Nice. More relaxed. I like that there doesn't seem to be any chorus, and the fiddle gives it a very celtic twist.
4. Nations: Much darker, with a very Cavelike feel. Reminds me of “Song of joy” from Murder Ballads
5. The family god: Much more low-key, vocal almost muttered at times, picks up nicely then and gets a little more intense.
6. Because she was: Can't say anything about a forty-second track.
7. Roses of Los Angeles: Very bouncy and uptempo, very cheerful, lots of whistles, beating drums, pipes, kind of as if there was a parade going on. The vocal is almost a warcry or shouted proclamation.
8. What you were: And in contrast, a slow, laconic, piano ballad. Again it kicks up later but maintains its basic fragility.
9. Sunset park: Very repetitive (and I mean very) but very engaging somehow. Like the guitar tone. The song is seriously way way WAY too long for what's in in though, which is basically one verse repeated over and over. I really want to downgrade this to Orange, due to the laziness of the writing, but hell, I really like it.
10. Wedding: I like the instrumental intro much more than I like the staggering, sort of wandering melody when the vocal gets going. Almost like two different songs. I'd do Red on this, but due to the intro I'll allow a White, though it doesn't really deserve it.
11. What will come: Again, a nice ambient kind of intro that just feels like it's waiting to burst into something, and begins to coalesce a bit with some organ and bass and then a strummed acoustic guitar with piano coming in. It does build, with a sort of desperate intensity, some great piano accompanying the rise as the song goes on, and it's a very suitable closer.

End result: An enjoyable album, not what I would personally consider a classic, nor anything I'd be in a terrible rush to get back to or explore further, but a pleasant enough listen.

So, Love or Hate? Have to be Love on this one. Again.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

Not too far away. If I continue at this pace, should have her done by next Wednesday...

Incidentally, if anyone literally cannot wait to hear what I thought of their album, you can see from the OP whether I've listened to it by now (marked in pale yellow), and if you want to PM me I will give you my verdict. Mind you, it's surely more fun to wait till it's posted? But some people are impatient, so if that's you, and your album is marked as listened to but not yet posted, fire away...

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

Title: Avantine
Artiste: Agnes Obel
Genre: Folk, Classical
Familiarity: Zero

1. Chord left: Lovely lonely piano, very melancholy with some very reflective tones. Instrumental; good start to the album. Interested to hear how she sounds when singing though.
2. Fuel to fire: Fuller piano on this; her voice is pretty sweet with a hint of bitter longing. Nice when she unexpectedly hits those higher notes. I think I hear violin there too. Are there backing vocals, or just her own multitracked? Effective, either way.
3. Dorian: An almost starker feel to this, really rippling piano
4. Avantine: Somehow slightly more uptempo; pizzicato strings, moaning cello sort of counterpoints the darker tone of the song.
5. Run cried the crawling: A sort of bluesy lament with a nice sway about it and some emotional crooning
6. Tokka: Another short piano instrumental, which for some reason reminds me of those old Hollywood movies about Rome? Meh, don't ask: I'm a strange guy. Very nice tone though, like the kind of fast run at the end of each bar. And then it slows down for a moment before kind of fading out.
7. The curse: First one I haven't been crazy about. Can't say why; it just doesn't grab me like the others did.
8. Pass them by: This one is nicer, has a sweet folky tone to it
9. Words are dead: And this is lovely; very sad and wistful again
10. Fivefold: Short instrumental; not mad about it. Cello is nice, but the piece lacks something.
11. Smoke and mirrors: Really nice closer; like the vocal harmonies.

End result: A nice album. A little too sad all the time (or most of it) for my tastes, but she has a nice voice and can certainly play the piano. Quite relaxing, in a dark, bitter kind of way.

So, Love or Hate? I think it would have to be a Love.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

DwnWthVwls

Cool

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I don't got a god complex, you got a simple god...

Trollheart

Title: Blackwater Park
Artiste: Opeth
Genre: Progressive Metal
Familiarity: I've heard two albums, both of which I believe are more towards the progressive metal, even progressive rock direction the band has taken lately rather than the older, death metal style they became known for.

1. The leper affinity: A ten-minute opener is pushing it a little but we'll see. The vocal is certainly more death metal than I had expected, but hey, I'm used to that by now. Whereas before I used to turn off an album if I heard this kind of vocal, now I just embrace it, occasionally laugh at it. (See my review of Hate's Crusade: Zero in Metal Month III) This song has some elements of prog metal in it though, with quieter, almost reflective passages, and the ten minutes goes in much faster than I had expected. Nice piano ending.
2. Bleak: Another ten-minuter? Alright, nine, but still... like the Arabic flavour to the guitar riff, also like the way the vocal switches from death growls to clean vocals. Pretty decent.
3. Harvest: Nice acoustic guitar running this, the vocal seems to be clean all the way through
4. The drapery falls: Good track; the death vocals are back and it's another ten-minute behemoth that goes by quickly enough. Kind of not really feeling it like I did with the other two Opeths I listened to though.
5. Dirge for November:It'll be a surprise to precisely no-one that I prefer the more laidback, acoustic pieces here, the times when Opeth lean more in a prog rock and away from any sort of metal direction. This is one such. Well, maybe not quite: started off that way. I still like it better than most of what has gone before, despite the sudden upsurge and the death vocals.
6. The funeral portrait: Back to a hard rocker with death vocals. Nice vocal harmonies, but I'm not that interested really.
7. Patterns in the sky: Really nice instrumental, too short though.
8. Blackwater Park: And a twelve-minute track to close! Like the instrumental section in the middle, other than that it kind of doesn't do an awful lot for me.

End result: If I hadn't already heard “new” Opeth (mostly hated by their old fans) I might have thought more of this, but now that I've seen what they can do this just seems a little average and boring to me. I'm aware it's considered one of their greater albums, but then, that should really never figure into my decision, should it? And it doesn't.

So, Love or Hate? Probably a Like rather than an actual Love.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018