J2112YYZ Posted September 9, 2022 Share Posted September 9, 2022 2 hours ago, bluefox4000 said: Over The past few days. All That Remains Behind Silence and Solitude This Darkened Heart The Fall of Idols Overcome For We Are Many. Back in a metal mood in a big way. and I really dig ATR. even if they are a tad wonky at times. this Darkened Heart and Idols are two monster albums. Now Machine Head-Thourgh the Ashes of Empires. This band when they're doing things right are unstoppable. I don't like this as much as the Blackening but it's pretty good and a teaser for much better things. Mick If you like All That Remains, check out The War Within by Shadows Fall. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Union 5-3992 Posted September 9, 2022 Share Posted September 9, 2022 Ozzy Osbourne - Ozzmosis Ozzy Osbourne - Down to Earth Ozzy Osbourne - Black Rain Ozzy Osbourne - Scream Ozzy Osbourne - Ordinary Man Ozzy Osbourne - Patient Number 9 (I actually like this record a bit on first listen. Likely his best record since Down to Earth) 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted September 9, 2022 Share Posted September 9, 2022 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J2112YYZ Posted September 9, 2022 Share Posted September 9, 2022 1 hour ago, Union 5-3992 said: Ozzy Osbourne - Ozzmosis Ozzy Osbourne - Down to Earth Ozzy Osbourne - Black Rain Ozzy Osbourne - Scream Ozzy Osbourne - Ordinary Man Ozzy Osbourne - Patient Number 9 (I actually like this record a bit on first listen. Likely his best record since Down to Earth) To be fair, what wouldn't sound good after listening to Ordinary Man? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Entre_Perpetuo Posted September 9, 2022 Author Share Posted September 9, 2022 Guns N Roses - Appetite For Destruction Guns N Roses - Use Your Illusion I Guns N Roses - Use Your Illusion II It’s incredible how quickly the band lost the plot. One spectacular (though not perfect, but darn close) record followed up by a double whammy of maddening inconsistency, and then of course I’ve never heard the rest. GNR had themselves fine tuned and figured out on the debut, which is more than most bands, even legendary ones, can say. Then after the four years it took to get another full album out (not a good sign), it’s two double records and no filter in the worst way. I like II better than I, as trying to stick to their softer and more stretched out side ironically tends to subdue Axl’s worst singing and songwriting tendencies. But it’s easy to see how many folks might not see it that way. A hard rock band as legendary as Guns N Roses shouldn’t have this much trouble writing a good hard rocker, especially not 4 years into their career. UYI2 may be a bit more consistent than it’s twin, but it does it by stretching out and going more for Elton John than Aerosmith. UYI1 at least has the right idea of what GNR means to people, a heavy dirty hard rocking riot, with a touch of soul. But the balance is way off. There’s little evidence that the songs were sequenced in any meaningful way (aside from perhaps the last few tracks). The rockers are messy, and not in the captivating fun way they were on AFD. There’s just too much going on in the mix, and half the time that too much is Axl’s voice. Here’s the most obvious culprit for the fall off between the debut and the Illusions: Axl Rose. He’s got a great instrument at his disposal, but he’s hamming it up so much that his power and range are neutered by his warbles and lack of finesse. Not to mention the fatiguing number of vocal layers crowding many of these tracks (and I say that as a massive Queen fan). Axl can harmonize well with himself (case in point: It’s So Easy off of AFD), but the way he does it through most of the Illusion records is just not pleasing to the ear. And I get that he’s not supposed to be pitch perfect or anything, he’s Axl Rose. But even by a Keith Richards metric, these harmonies don’t work as well as they should. That’s not to say Axl is the only problem. The band seems to have suffered a spontaneous lack of chemistry. The grooves often feel either stiff or forced. The riffs aren’t as memorable as the first record. The arrangements are disorienting and often overwrought. It’s all just too much. Even Slash’s iconic soloing feels lost in the shuffle on most songs. And then there’s the problem of obvious filler. Some of these songs are vastly better than others. And there are certainly enough good to great songs to make a single 45 minute album that works well. It probably wouldn’t be the equal of AFD, but it would be better than this mess by a lot. Give me Locomotive for sure whatever track list you make though, because that one really puts most of the rest of the material on these to shame. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Union 5-3992 Posted September 9, 2022 Share Posted September 9, 2022 2 hours ago, J2112YYZ said: To be fair, what wouldn't sound good after listening to Ordinary Man? True. It's not like most of the others were great either. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ST3V Posted September 10, 2022 Share Posted September 10, 2022 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Entre_Perpetuo Posted September 10, 2022 Author Share Posted September 10, 2022 AC/DC - Back In Black Def Leppard - Pyromania 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super25Smasher Posted September 10, 2022 Share Posted September 10, 2022 Ozzy Osbourne - Patient Number 9 Point North - Brand New Vision 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted September 10, 2022 Share Posted September 10, 2022 1 hour ago, Entre_Perpetuo said: AC/DC - Back In Black Def Leppard - Pyromania Which of these two albums do you prefer? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted September 10, 2022 Share Posted September 10, 2022 3 hours ago, Union 5-3992 said: True. It's not like most of the others were great either. This new one is the best one he's done since about f***ing 1995. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J2112YYZ Posted September 10, 2022 Share Posted September 10, 2022 3 minutes ago, treeduck said: This new one is the best one he's done since about f***ing 1995. Yep, I'm only on the fourth song but this album already blows away everything he's done over the last 20 years. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueschica Posted September 10, 2022 Share Posted September 10, 2022 4 hours ago, Entre_Perpetuo said: Guns N Roses - Appetite For Destruction Guns N Roses - Use Your Illusion I Guns N Roses - Use Your Illusion II It’s incredible how quickly the band lost the plot. One spectacular (though not perfect, but darn close) record followed up by a double whammy of maddening inconsistency, and then of course I’ve never heard the rest. GNR had themselves fine tuned and figured out on the debut, which is more than most bands, even legendary ones, can say. Then after the four years it took to get another full album out (not a good sign), it’s two double records and no filter in the worst way. I like II better than I, as trying to stick to their softer and more stretched out side ironically tends to subdue Axl’s worst singing and songwriting tendencies. But it’s easy to see how many folks might not see it that way. A hard rock band as legendary as Guns N Roses shouldn’t have this much trouble writing a good hard rocker, especially not 4 years into their career. UYI2 may be a bit more consistent than it’s twin, but it does it by stretching out and going more for Elton John than Aerosmith. UYI1 at least has the right idea of what GNR means to people, a heavy dirty hard rocking riot, with a touch of soul. But the balance is way off. There’s little evidence that the songs were sequenced in any meaningful way (aside from perhaps the last few tracks). The rockers are messy, and not in the captivating fun way they were on AFD. There’s just too much going on in the mix, and half the time that too much is Axl’s voice. Here’s the most obvious culprit for the fall off between the debut and the Illusions: Axl Rose. He’s got a great instrument at his disposal, but he’s hamming it up so much that his power and range are neutered by his warbles and lack of finesse. Not to mention the fatiguing number of vocal layers crowding many of these tracks (and I say that as a massive Queen fan). Axl can harmonize well with himself (case in point: It’s So Easy off of AFD), but the way he does it through most of the Illusion records is just not pleasing to the ear. And I get that he’s not supposed to be pitch perfect or anything, he’s Axl Rose. But even by a Keith Richards metric, these harmonies don’t work as well as they should. That’s not to say Axl is the only problem. The band seems to have suffered a spontaneous lack of chemistry. The grooves often feel either stiff or forced. The riffs aren’t as memorable as the first record. The arrangements are disorienting and often overwrought. It’s all just too much. Even Slash’s iconic soloing feels lost in the shuffle on most songs. And then there’s the problem of obvious filler. Some of these songs are vastly better than others. And there are certainly enough good to great songs to make a single 45 minute album that works well. It probably wouldn’t be the equal of AFD, but it would be better than this mess by a lot. Give me Locomotive for sure whatever track list you make though, because that one really puts most of the rest of the material on these to shame. It was horrible waiting for the next G n R album after such a great debut and having it be these! I will testify to that. I read Duff's autobiography and everything totally changed while they were writing the second, Izzy pretty much checked out, Axl got weirder, etc etc. and it shows. Except for live albums I'm not a big fan of double albums, I like editing. Even Exile on Main Street could have benefited from it. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Entre_Perpetuo Posted September 10, 2022 Author Share Posted September 10, 2022 28 minutes ago, treeduck said: Which of these two albums do you prefer? Hmmm Tonight I was more engaged with Back In Black. I think it’s the better sounding record, and one of the best sounding rock albums of all time. The mix can’t be altered in any way to make it better. But there is the thing about Brian where he doesn’t pull off innuendo as well as Bon did, and that detracts from some songs here. Pyromania is about as perfectly written as hard rock albums come, and the blend of influences into their own sound perfectly coalesces here too. However the production sounds less great than I remember it hot on the heels of Back In Black. The layers just get muddy in places. I guess I’d say I prefer Pyromania on paper, but I recognize Back In Black is probably the better record. great question! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Entre_Perpetuo Posted September 10, 2022 Author Share Posted September 10, 2022 9 minutes ago, blueschica said: It was horrible waiting for the next G n R album after such a great debut and having it be these! I will testify to that. I read Duff's autobiography and everything totally changed while they were writing the second, Izzy pretty much checked out, Axl got weirder, etc etc. and it shows. Except for live albums I'm not a big fan of double albums, I like editing. Even Exile on Main Street could have benefited from it. I’m usually a fan of doubles, it’s always fun for me to hear what a band has to say with a lighter filter or a bigger concept. But in this case I totally agree. That makes sense about Izzy. I think a lot of my trouble with the band’s playing on these records could come down to him not being fully there. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Entre_Perpetuo Posted September 10, 2022 Author Share Posted September 10, 2022 47 minutes ago, J2112YYZ said: Yep, I'm only on the fourth song but this album already blows away everything he's done over the last 20 years. I just listened to the track that features Clapton. That was the best thing Clapton’s played this millennium. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J2112YYZ Posted September 10, 2022 Share Posted September 10, 2022 Ozzy - Patient Number 9 (8/10) Wow! He finally came out with an album that doesn't suck and is worth listening to all the way through more than once. Easily his best since Ozzmosis. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueschica Posted September 10, 2022 Share Posted September 10, 2022 (edited) 20 minutes ago, Entre_Perpetuo said: I’m usually a fan of doubles, it’s always fun for me to hear what a band has to say with a lighter filter or a bigger concept. But in this case I totally agree. That makes sense about Izzy. I think a lot of my trouble with the band’s playing on these records could come down to him not being fully there. I got the impression somewhere that Izzy was behind a lot of the songwriting on AFD. All the band members agreed to put all the names on every song, though, like REM too I think, because they had seen other bands break up over songwriting money ? But yeah, the Use Your Illusions were definite sophomore slump. Didn't Queen do that after awhile too? Edited September 10, 2022 by blueschica Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted September 10, 2022 Share Posted September 10, 2022 25 minutes ago, Entre_Perpetuo said: Hmmm Tonight I was more engaged with Back In Black. I think it’s the better sounding record, and one of the best sounding rock albums of all time. The mix can’t be altered in any way to make it better. But there is the thing about Brian where he doesn’t pull off innuendo as well as Bon did, and that detracts from some songs here. Pyromania is about as perfectly written as hard rock albums come, and the blend of influences into their own sound perfectly coalesces here too. However the production sounds less great than I remember it hot on the heels of Back In Black. The layers just get muddy in places. I guess I’d say I prefer Pyromania on paper, but I recognize Back In Black is probably the better record. great question! Ironically it's the same producer! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Segue Myles Posted September 10, 2022 Share Posted September 10, 2022 Machine Head- The Blackening Machine Head- Of Kingdoms And Crowns Two exquisite metal albums. I love the power and ambition of the latest. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Segue Myles Posted September 10, 2022 Share Posted September 10, 2022 Saxon- Rock The Nations Saxon- Destiny I really like these two albums. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex’s Amazing Arpeggios Posted September 10, 2022 Share Posted September 10, 2022 2 hours ago, Segue Myles said: Saxon- Rock The Nations Saxon- Destiny I really like these two albums. Ditto 👍😎 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Segue Myles Posted September 10, 2022 Share Posted September 10, 2022 1 minute ago, Alex’s Amazing Arpeggios said: Ditto 👍😎 I don't really know what it is about Saxon I enjoy so much. They are so ordinary and you could argue lacklustre, but I can't stop playing them 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex’s Amazing Arpeggios Posted September 10, 2022 Share Posted September 10, 2022 New(-ish ) 2022 releases 👍😎…. Journey - Freedom Muse - Will of the People King’s X - Three sides of One … I love all 3 ! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Segue Myles Posted September 10, 2022 Share Posted September 10, 2022 Saxon- Innocence Is No Excuse It's very much a Dokken album lol 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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