Music Banter - Listen with Trollheart

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Trollheart

04-10-2018 08:58 AM

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My Dearest Darkest Neighbor – Hurray for the Riff Raff (2013)
Genre: Americana/Folk/Blues

I came across these guys while doing my “Albums of 2017” thread and I really liked them, so, like most times when that happens, I went and got all their albums. This, then, is the second of theirs I've listened to. I think it's a little more low-key than The Navigator, but that came among so many hundreds of other albums I kind of have only a hazy recollection of it, other than remembering that I really liked it. Nice to hear them do Leadbelly's “Out on the Western Plain”, (they call it “Western Cowboy”) though I know it more through Rory Gallagher. Good song though. The first to up the tempo and kick some life into what was becoming, to be honest, a slightly downbeat and miserable album. Not that that's bad, but it's nice to hear them rock out a little, even if it ain't their song. Oh, and they do Lennon's “Jealous Guy” too. Lot of covers, in fact: Joni Mitchell, Elizabeth Cotten, Lucinda and Hank Williams, George Harrison. Hmm. Yeah, it's basically a covers album, with maybe two original tracks. Not sure I like that. I mean, it's okay, but not perhaps the best example of their work. Kind of a disappointment really.
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Trollheart

04-12-2018 03:08 PM

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Liminal – Exivious (2013)
Genre: Prog Metal/Jazz Fusion

I remember reviewing this as part of one of my other major project, years ago, which was to review all the top albums in Progarchives' top 100 for that year (so obviously then it was five years ago) but I thought I remembered not liking it. It's got a lot of good reviews so maybe I should listen to it again, now that it's come up. It's all instrumental, and people have compared these guys to Cynic, which isn't surprising as their lead guitarist was with that band. Okay, yeah, I think it's better than I remember thinking it was, if that makes sense. If not, here's the original review from 2014 http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ml#post1446608 I'm still not going to go out and get the rest of their albums, well, their one other album. This got high praise from others, yes, but while I give it a little more credit than I had originally, it's still not really something I'd be listening to again.
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Trollheart

04-13-2018 12:03 PM

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God of the Deep Unleashed – Wrathblade (2017)
Genre: Power Metal

Oh my ****ing good god! This band HAS to be a power metal band! Wrathblade? Wrath-****ing-blade? And a cover like that? If this isn't power metal I'll eat me hat. I don't have a hat. Okay, I'll buy a hat, and then eat it. This has to be power metal. Look at those song titles: “Transcendent Essence.” “Enter the Warrior's Guild (Doomopolis Pt II)”. “Castration of Uranus”. I am not making these up, I swear! :laughing: So anyway, yeah: it's a sub-Maiden power metal album that seems a little too close to Bruce and the boys than I'd prefer. Interesting start: thought it would be one of those stupid, cliched narrations, but it was basically a kind of acapella folky thing. Not bad. The album took something of a dive after it, though. Doesn't help that the guy is at the very best a bog-standard singer. Yeah, this is just awful. Near the end, the playback just stopped, for no reason. I naturally assumed it was the media player trying desperately to save me by putting a stop to this terrible, derivative music. Sadly, after a short pause it started up again. But it won't be doing that again, I can tell you.
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The Batlord

04-13-2018 12:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollheart (Post 1938007)

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A Matter of Life and Death - Iron Maiden (2006)
Genre: Heavy Metal

This is where I cheat. It's the first time, but it won't be the last. IDGAF. This is chosen not by random selection but after continual requests from Batty that I give it another shot. So I will. I haven't paid too much attention to any Maiden album really since Brave New World; none of them have impressed me sufficiently to have me come back for a second go. This, from what I remember, went in one ear and out the other, the first and only time I listened to it. Yeah, it's kind of the same really. I can hear a few tracks I might like to try again - “These Colours Don't Run”, “Brighter Than a Thousand Suns”, “For the Greater Good of God” - but mostly there are two problems here, and they apply to all other post-BNW albums too. One, the songs are mostly too long. Looking down the track list here, there are only three songs under six minutes, and only one under five. Maiden songs used not to need to be this long. For me, it can make them tedious and boring. And two, many of the songs here remind me of earlier Maiden songs, suggesting (as I've posited before) that they are running out of ideas. I see little here that would bring me back, on the face of this listen.

*continues to stump for A Matter of Life and Death in the face of listener incompetence*

Trollheart

04-13-2018 01:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Batlord (Post 1940854)

*continues to stump for A Matter of Life and Death in the face of listener incompetence*

To be fair, I did enjoy it, and I could see with a few repeated listens I might like it a lot more. Not anywhere close to the Golden Age albums, though, but then, I guess none of the post-BNW albums ever will be. I might give the others a shot over the weekend.

The Batlord

04-13-2018 01:07 PM

A Matter of Life and Death has been the only anomaly for me post-BNW tbh.

Trollheart

04-15-2018 12:11 PM

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A Perpetual Descent – Greytomb (2016)
Genre: Black Metal/Atmospheric Black Metal

There was a time when I would run screaming from Black Metal. I'm still not what you'd call a fan of the genre but I can listen to a lot more than I used to, which was none. This is ABM, to an extent, and so slightly easier on my ears. Only four tracks, but as usual with this genre, they're mostly in the ten-minute-or-more area, with only one coming in at four. Pretty sweet, without doubt.
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