Bear

I see. I am looking forward to the album as Mayhem have always managed to surprised with what they do, on both good and bad. But after this I just won't keep my hopes up. This is Mayhem's "new" guitarists' main band. Hellhammer on drums on the last song (hence the shitty drum sound, something he doesn't know shit about). You can hear that some of the riffing is very similar.

Lyrics aren't important at all to me. I sure do apprectiate goodlyrics, or just fitting lyrics for that matter, but it's not important at all. After all, 80% of all music I have ever heard has got shitty lyrics and that doesn't bother me at all.

I understand. It might grow on me, but after a few listens I'm not impressed at all. I know they've got a new songwriter, and that's probably the most disappointing part of this. Teloch's a great songwriter as heard in Nidingr (amazing, and sadly overseen/underrated band) and I expect him to come up with something better than this. Especially the first half of the song's close to awful. Second half's a lot better, but not good enough for something with Mayhem written on the cover. I was not a fan of the two past albums either, but Ordo... is a record worthy of the Mayhem logo, despite me not liking it very much. At least not when it came. Should probably give it a spin again someday.

Really? I thought it was pretty boring. A boring, generic mix of Nidingr, Thorns and Keep of Kalessin's "Reclaim".

And a teaser: http://shop.napalmrecords.com/arkona

Now what's wrong with b films?

But if one consider visual kei a genre, then that also means that one consider Schwarze Stein, Versailles and Lynch to be playing the the same type of music, which they obviously ain't. You have one electronica band, one metal band and one rock band. Are these guys really playing the same type of music? Because in 2014 genres are based on the music they play, not the way they look or what they sing about. And I am having a hard time putting these three into the same genre.

You're so far off with those comments. The metal community really isn't close minded. Like not at all. And Grieva sounds pretty good. They sound like a band that made a shitload of songs in the late 90's, but then split ut, for so an reform 10 years later and record those songs. Old school sound in a modern production.

We Are What We Are - Piss fucking boring horrordrama that actually made me fell asleep a couple of times, something which have happened 2-3 during my life. That kinda says it all, doesn't it? It's a remake of a Mexican film, which from what I read has a shitload in comming with the awful The Hamiltons. But no, there was absolutely nothing throughout this film that caught my interest. Poor, poor film. Psycho - Alfred Hitchcock was a genius and one of the biggest and best directors ever, and Psycho is his absolute best film. Need I say any more? No.

No, I don't think so. Everyone I have ever known since I got into Japanese music myself have been into Japanese music. I've introduced people to visual kei, but those have already known at least a handful of Japanese bands.

Quality wise the debut of Les Discrets is more or less the same as the second one, but sound wise they're actually a bit different. The first sure has more post-metal elements in it. Brilliant band! Agalloch could probably be a nice place to continue. They've always developed their sound but without losing their own identity. Started of as a very black metalish band but went further and further away from black metal for many years, before returning to their roots with the masterpiece that is Marrow of the Spirit before releasing their most blackened, dark and brutal release in form of another masterpiece, Faustian Echoes. The Mantle would probably be a fine lace to start though. It's where I started as well. Though I prefer some of their other albums today, but it's still an amazing album.

It's Neige, aight. He's got a beautiful voice if you ask me. Perfect for this kind of music. He's also got what's perhaps the most inhuman voice ever (ref: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLSUQYzqXZ0). Them shrieks, baby. Them shrieks. Insane. Best vocal performance ever PERIOD. Så nasty, rotten and disgusting it almost makes you sick. He's not exactly doing a bad job here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9erbq49fEUQ) either. Christ almighty. You'll find some similarity in Old Silver Key (Drudkh + Neige) where he sings in English. And obviously Les Discrets.

It's not metal, but considering Alcest have been a metal band for 15 years before releasing something that isn't metal I don't see a single reason not to talk bout them in a metal thread. Their weakest release since the demo, yet a brilliant album. Says all about Alcest's qualities to be honest. And I am not sold on "Away" yet. I think it is a good song, but it doesn't quite fit with the rest of the album, much due to the song being sung in English. Not too fond of that when the rest is sung in French, a language superior to English when it comes to music.

To me, visual kei is nothing but a scene or something like that. A genre is something that says something about a bands sound, and while a certain genre can be broad and have a lot of different sounds within it, it still says something about the sound the bands have. Visual kei says nothing about the sound itself as it range from electronica to thrash metal to pop and rock and so on. You can play death metal and be a visual kei band. You can play acoustic folk and still be considered visual kei. So no, not a genre to me. One can often tell the genre, but one certainly can't say if one will like or dislike a band based on their look. A bands image says nothing about the quality on the music. You can look good and make shit music, just like you can look shitty and make good music. No, it does not. I don't mind a interesting/good looking band, but it won't matter at all when it comes to music. A good image however can be the difference between checking the band out or not, just like a good or bad coverart can be the difference between checking something out and not. Yeah, I do. It all depends on what I want. If I want some new ambient black metal I will search for ambient black metal. If I want some nu-metal that's what I search for. But I don't do this often as I don't tend to search for a certain type of music. No. No, they are not.

No, I didn't know. Nor did I have the time to search for it when I asked. I just saw a thread about anime and saw an opportunity to finally ask. But can't a mod just take the last 11 posts and move it into that thread?

I'm not quite sure what you're getting at here. Might be because I am half asleep at the moment. But are you saying the production have its weaknesses because of the label the album was released on?

I read "Heidi. Fly High" and thought we'd get us a new release. Bah. One of the better bands within the scene nowadays.

Really? I think the album is almost overproduced. Would have loved for it to be a bit more lo-fi. More like the debut album. Still consider the debut to me a masterpiece though. Brilliant album. And this year have started off great too as far as metal goes. Been som really, really good releases so far.

Seen some of the stuff mentioned here (Ergo Proxy, Wicked City, Perfect Blue, Paprika) but I'll check out the others. And I don't mind robots or stuff like that. As far as this go I don't mind if it's sci-fi noir, horror noir, neo-noir or whatever. Or sci-fi-horror for that matter. Or just noir, sci-fi or horror. That doesn't matter.

Not sure if I ever asked about this here, but I am looking for certain types of anime. Not sure if I'll ever find anything like it, but it's woth a try. Anime noir. Does it exist? Anime crime. Something dark and serious. Anime horror. Again something dark and serious. I'm not looking for some lighthearted crime or horror. I want something dark, serious and grown up. I'll take films as well. What are the chances of finding something like this in the world of anime?

I see. I'll make a list of ten then. 1. Sigh 2. Sabbat 3. Framtid 4. Mono 5. Abigail 6. Disclose / Syphilitic Vaginas (not sure if these guys are Swedish or Japanese) 7. Boris 8. Flower Travellin' Band 9. S.O.B. 10. Coffins If I made this list again in a week or two it'd be different. Then I'd probably find a place for either Gauze, Melt-Banana, Kriegshög, Gallhammer, Arkha Sva, Magnesium and so on, or several of them. And the week after it'd be different again and so on. But the two-three first ones would be the exact same every single week.

I see people mention Boris, Church of Misery and Mono, so are we just talking about Japanese rock/metal in general here? Or something more specific.

Sunbather was disappointing. Those god damn fillers. Should have done as they did with their superb debut album and just released something short, because without the fillers Sunbather wouldn't stand back to Roads of Judah the way it does now.

I guess nobody here would ever go to Norway for a concert, but did anyone see this years Inferno Festival line up? By far the best they've ever had. Insane! Bands I must see: Deathhammer Impiety Mystifier Vemod Blasphemy Mgla Necros Christos Sigh Black Witchery Bands I'll have a look at: Dimmu Borgir Hatebreed Obliteration Gehenna Tulus Rotting Christ Watain Oranssi Pazuzu Nine bands I'll see for sure, and eight bands I'll have a look at, and if it's good I'll watch the whole set. If not, I'll go have ten beers and talk to people. Should be a great week for sure. Massive line up!