Mothy, CrimsonWarrior and Kerrick--one album each

Sevenoneself wrote:

Black Rider wrote:This thread is so elitest. Humph.

I know you meant this as joke, but the only way I could keep the number of suggestions down to a manageable amount was to only ask a few people!

Just a few people and one album each was a good idea.  As much as I'd love to see a "Kerrick's Obscure Recommendations" thread my bank account couldn't handle it.

Wrong thread. Deleted

eatbugs wrote:

Sevenoneself wrote:

Black Rider wrote:This thread is so elitest. Humph.

I know you meant this as joke, but the only way I could keep the number of suggestions down to a manageable amount was to only ask a few people!

Just a few people and one album each was a good idea.  As much as I'd love to see a "Kerrick's Obscure Recommendations" thread my bank account couldn't handle it.

I'm finding that I LOVE female vocals with doom vocals. And a few of these albums have that!

Sevenoneself wrote:I'm finding that I LOVE female vocals with doom vocals. And a few of these albums have that!

Have you checked out Warpriest’s second album, Dark Ages? Mrs. Warpriest sings on several songs and it sounds fantastic.

Sevenoneself wrote:I'm finding that I LOVE female vocals with doom vocals. And a few of these albums have that!

Nice!  I second Warpriest's latest stuff.  Other doooom bands with female vocals you might like are:

Only/primarily female vocals:
Omegashift (of course!)
Of Withering Ashes (older stuff; only a few demo songs)

Male/Female combo vocals:
Angel Distress (only one single out so far but it's killer doom/death)
Implacable
Reminiscent
Trinity
Warpriest

Pethead wrote:

Sevenoneself wrote:I'm finding that I LOVE female vocals with doom vocals. And a few of these albums have that!

Have you checked out Warpriest’s second album, Dark Ages? Mrs. Warpriest sings on several songs and it sounds fantastic.

You guys know that you should assume that I haven't listened to anything you recommend!

I will find this and add it to my list.

Nick Leonard was my listen last night. Like I've said numerous times, I have to spin all these records many more times before I'll get to know the genres enough to know if I like them. All the bands have had great songs, playing, singing, production. I didn't enjoy Leonard's album as much, but I'm not quite sure why. One possibility is that I've never enjoyed lyrics that are straight quotations from the Bible; I like it when they are arranged a bit more poetically and even rhymed. Another reason could be is that I'm not used to sung vocals with this style of metal; I would have preferred some harsher vocals. But these are all preliminary thoughts; some of favourite albums I disliked at first!

And yes, Omegashift! I was going to ask you what that band was that you got me to listen to in my first couple weeks on the CMR. I am going to listen to them again, I really enjoyed them!

How did you like Exortta?

mothy wrote:How did you like Exortta?

I'm gonna spin it again right now; I've been listening to so much new stuff the songs/albums are like a vegetable chowder in my brain--it tastes great but I can't tell exactly what is what!

No worries man. Just saw you spun it so I was curious.

Exortta:

LOVE: vocals, symphonic sound, drums, acoustic guitar interludes, song writing

DON'T LIKE: the lower-fi mix of the genre, lack of harmonies between instruments, 

My favourite aspects of metal that Exortta is missing are heavy guitar riffs and guitar solos. So many of these bands are a harder sell for me b/c those two elements are not part of the genres. As well, I've been moving in the last few years to shorter songs, and these genres also move in the opposite direction. 

But that is why I came to you so I can sample the best in these genres; I want to expand my horizons and get past listening to the same 15 bands from the same genres all the time!

I'm half way through the album; I may add more thoughts later.

Soaring guitar lead in Eu Navegarei - check!

Call/Response with harsh vocals and female vocals in Diarmed - check!

A few awesome riffs in both those songs - check! Perhaps there are more riffs that I don't hear very well because of the choice of mix style.

CrimsonWarrior wrote:If, for each album I own, you were to multiply a theoretical quantifiable amount of obscurity by how much I like the album, I think Dormant - Consolamentum might have the highest score. It's riffy, one-man Dutch black metal that has been a favorite of mine ever since I found it. It has a very raw, organic sound to it and absolutely delivers on what I want black metal to be: dark, mysterious, and relentless.

I'm listening to this right now. I absolutely LOVE the rendition of the old hymn Oh The Deep, Deep, Love of Jesus on Liefde Was Het. Crimson, do you have any idea if that is the lyrics he is singing/shrieking?

Sevenoneself wrote:

CrimsonWarrior wrote:If, for each album I own, you were to multiply a theoretical quantifiable amount of obscurity by how much I like the album, I think Dormant - Consolamentum might have the highest score. It's riffy, one-man Dutch black metal that has been a favorite of mine ever since I found it. It has a very raw, organic sound to it and absolutely delivers on what I want black metal to be: dark, mysterious, and relentless.

I'm listening to this right now. I absolutely LOVE the rendition of the old hymn Oh The Deep, Deep, Love of Jesus on Liefde Was Het. Crimson, do you have any idea if that is the lyrics he is singing/shrieking?

I'm not sure! It might be a Dutch translation of those words, or just a different hymn altogether but set to the same tune. Imo it's the perfect ending for that album.

The "booklet" (just a two-sided insert) says for track 7, "lyrics by T.J. Williams and Nain-Usar."  (Nain-Usar is the name the guy behind Dormant goes/went by.)  It's not super helpful, but it's something!

Interestingly, according to Wikipedia, it seems that Williams only wrote the music and the lyrics were actually written by Samuel Taylor Francis.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_the_Deep,_Deep_Love_of_Jesus

Very cool. So it's very likely that he wrote or translated lyrics into Dutch. I may track down his email and ask him. I'm very intrigued and impressed when metal guys can make hymns work. There's been many cringe-worthy metal hymns done!

Kerrick, you own the CD?

Sevenoneself wrote:Kerrick, you own the CD?

I do!  

Kerrick wrote:

Sevenoneself wrote:Kerrick, you own the CD?

I do!  

I just saw on one of the Christian metal archive sites that only 100 cd's were made. If this is true, you could be sitting on a potentially rare item worth millions!

Sevenoneself wrote:

Kerrick wrote:

Sevenoneself wrote:Kerrick, you own the CD?

I do!  

I just saw on one of the Christian metal archive sites that only 100 cd's were made. If this is true, you could be sitting on a potentially rare item worth millions!

I managed to get my copy for $3 from Shaver AV before that site went out. One of the best deals I ever got. Not sure how much it sells for on Discogs these days, but I doubt it's much more than $20. But low supply, low demand items do occasionally sell for a lot.

So...Children of Wrath.

I've said in other threads that I'm not a fan of lyrics just quoting Scripture. However, I thought that it's working pretty well for these guys. It's rhythmic and when they repeated lines it seemed to work even better. It also brought my mind back to the Bible, which is something my own composition's lyrics don't always do.

I like that the growled vocals are quite intelligible; I think I recognized 1/2 the lyrics without any liner notes!

I loved the tuba hits at the beginning of the song Supernatural Dimensions. It was like a throw-back to the middle of The Poet and the Pendulum (Nightwish), and I realized again how much I love it! The rest of the song was awesome as well; perhaps b/c it does morph a bit into thrash with guitar riffs and off-beat rhythms. 

I also like the fact that the drums every now and then (very rarely) are just a wee touch off. It humanized everything and adds to the atmosphere of the album.

I also love the added musical fx that they add all throughout the albums (especially the 2nd one, right?) to add depth and interest to the music.  Is it Wheels within Wheels where there is even some electronica-type vocal fx in a few spots? I loved it, and it caused my ears to perk up! Same as The Prayers...the intro has some arpeggiated synthesizers!

By listening to all of these albums you've recommended, I'm getting a better handle on the different subgenres of metal; I'm realizing that you can't understand them unless you listen to bands that land squarely in a category. I re-read some of the definitions from metalmusicarchives (from a thread where I was asking about genres a few months ago) and they made alot more sense!

So all-in-all, this has been a great thread for me. I'm not done yet; I'm going to make sure I listen to all of these albums a few more times so I can appreciate their unique elements.

So thanks guys!

CrimsonWarrior wrote:

Sevenoneself wrote:

Kerrick wrote:

Sevenoneself wrote:Kerrick, you own the CD?

I do!  

I just saw on one of the Christian metal archive sites that only 100 cd's were made. If this is true, you could be sitting on a potentially rare item worth millions!

I managed to get my copy for $3 from Shaver AV before that site went out. One of the best deals I ever got. Not sure how much it sells for on Discogs these days, but I doubt it's much more than $20. But low supply, low demand items do occasionally sell for a lot.

I think I may have ordered my CD from Shaver too, though that was a loooong time ago.  It is indeed pretty rare but I've only ever seen it for sale for surprisingly cheap.  Low supply and low demand as CW said I guess!  Either way, it's a great release.  Seven, if you are able to track the guy down, I'd love to know if he's been involved with any other musical endeavors!

Yesterday was Autumn Rising - Concept of Irony.

I really enjoyed; maybe more than what you indicated, Kerrick. I found that there were more interesting "extras" added to the music in the arranging phase, and I thought they worked really well. The drums had more syncopation and groove than some of the other bands, and I thought it worked really well and helped to differentiate from other bands. If I remember correctly, there were also some nice guitar solos, which I'm a sucker for.

I haven't really looked at the lyrics for any of these yet. I could understand most of CoW's, but will need to look into the others.

*The Autumn League 

Awesome; I'm glad you're enjoying it so much!  I've listened to that album countless times and every time it feels fresh and new.  I love the diverse elements in it though also how it remains a very cohesive album.

It's been a while since I've read through the lyrics but I remember being very impressed with them.