After 5 years and lots of band member changes, The Faceless has a new album out today. Have listened to about half of it so far but am enjoying it. Here’s a single off of it:
I kind of feel the same way about Iced Earth. Alive in Athens gets the most play time for me. I love Ripper, but he was a let down after Barlow left. I did grab presale tickets for them next February, but was more about seeing Sanctuary. Between seeing Jeff Loomis in Arch Enemy, the guys in Ghost Ship Octavius, and soon Warrel in Sanctuary, I will have essentially seen Nevermore this last year.
Heh, that’s kinda funny re: Nevermore. I missed Ghost Ship Octavius, but will have seen the rest after the Iced Earth show here next year. I’m pretty pumped about that :)
Also, I was really digging that Moonspell album that @Thraeg has in his rec’s above earlier this month, though I’ve spent most of the back half of November jamming to a LOT of Devin Townsend Project (saw him two nights ago) and Cut Copy (thoroughly not metal, but what my gf and I did for our 14th anniversary last night). Guess, as usual, I got some catching up to do!
That AI metal is more structured, melodic, rhythmic, tolerable and boring than most math-metal bands tbh
I swear I will never ever like any music “created” by an AI.
The very idea goes against all I love about music.
That said, the samples were somewhat interesting.
But not as good as Kraftwerk, dammit. Created by humans!
Ok guys, I have a dilemma. I’ve never seen Iced Earth in concert and I like a lot of their music. They are coming to my town. But Jon Shaffer is a total right winger asshole. WHAT DO I DO?
If you don’t want to support him, sneak in and enjoy the music?
I dunno much about the guy, but I’ve never had much difficulty in separating the politics from the music.
For instance, I’ve always really enjoyed Ted Nugent’s guitar work over the years, as much as his politics and personality annoy me. I just put on the music and wait for the next amazing solo.
Which brings up something I’ve noticed (which I could e entirely wrong about): It has always seemed to me that the most creative types (in any art form) lean very much left in their politics. But there are some anomalies. Nugent was always a favorite guitarist for me, going back to my teens in the 70’s. I was genuinely shocked to learn, years later, how much of a right-winger he is. I sincerely didn’t believe that any right-winger could play that well, and creatively. Or maybe it’s just a stereotype I’ve bought into.
It really depends on how much of those politics they bring into the show. For example, Nugent. If I liked his music I would not be able to go to a concert. Not because of his politics, per se, but because he brings them in rather distastefully. I.e. His gun toting racist Anti Obama screeds he loved to make part of his show.
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Or, conversely, Roger Waters. Were I a Trumpista I would probably not go to Waters’ Wall tour going on recently. Because his politics very much inform the performance, and extend beyond the music. His anti trump signs and words make watching the show very difficult.
So with Iced Earth thebquestion would be: how likely is Schaffer to bring thought Wong rhetoric, or racist sayings, into the show itself? And how would the crowd react? If he is going to get up there and say something racist and the crowd reacts with a huge cheer? Yeah, skip. If it has no bearing on the non musical aspects of the concert I wouldn’t let that impact me.
But note that non musical aspects also include crowd composition. If he draws a certain crowd (I.e. You’re going to be surrounded by red hats) then let that help decide.
Yeah, those are good points.
I guess I’m a bit naive in that respect, as I’ve never yet been to a concert where politics were brought to the forefront. Nor would I want to go to one where that was the case.
OTOH, many of my favorite artists have politics written into their songs, so it’s kind of unavoidable there, and that wouldn’t stop me from going. I suppose I’d draw the line at standing up there and giving a sermon between songs. But then again, I love Ghost. Man, this is a tough question. :)
Man I just reread my post. Autocorrect was brutal to me there. So, uh, pretend it all makes sense, especially paragraph 2.
@Vesper it’s something I’m grappling with, too. Esp. since Schaffer does seem to like to dump his earnings back into his weird Murica Fetishism thing.
I mean, I did pay actual dollars to see Anti-Flag in 2017. Maybe it’s a sort of comic balance between the two?
I just ran across this, and felt the need to post it somewhere.
Spinal Tap, performing “The Majesty Of Rock” at Wembley Stadium, 1992.
There’s a pulse in the new-born sun;
A beat in the heat of noon;
There’s a song as the day grows long,
And a tempo in the tides of the moon.
It’s all around us and it’s everywhere,
And it’s deeper than royal blue.
And it feels so real you can feel the feeling!
And that’s the majesty of rock!
The fantasy of roll!
The ticking of the clock,
The wailing of the soul!
The prisoner in the dock,
The digger in the hole,
We’re in this together, and ever
In the shade of a jungle glade,
Or the rush of the crushing street,
On the plain, on the foamy main,
You can never escape from the beat.
It’s in the mud and it’s in your blood
And it’s conquest is complete.
And all that you can to is just surrender
To the majesty of rock!
The pageantry of roll!
The crowing of the cock,
The running of the foal!
The shepherd with his flock,
The miner with his coal,
We’re in this together, and ever
When we die, do we haunt the sky?
Do we lurk in the murk of the seas?
What then? are we born again?
Just to sit asking questions like these?
I know, for I told me so,
And I’m sure each of you quite agrees:
The more it stays the same, the less it changes!
And that’s the majesty of rock!
The mystery of roll!
The darning of the sock,
The scoring of the goal!
The farmer takes a wife,
The barber takes a pole,
We’re in this together, and ever
Pickups on that always make me laugh
RIP the recently mentioned Warrel Dane.
Holy shit.
I was about to buy tickets to see him with Iced Earth next year.
That sucks. I had planned on seeing Sanctuary last year in Texas, but my trip fell through. Sadly the last time I saw Warrel was years ago on the Dead Heart tour at CBGB’s and he was falling down drunk.
Missed this one back in April, it’s pretty chill…
Dynfari - The Four Doors of the Mind
Alternating between post-rock vibes and black metal atmospheres, the album explores fantasy writer Patrick Rothfuss’ theory on the mind’s abilities to cope with pain, by weaving it together with over 100 year old lamentations on human existence by early 20th century Icelandic existentialist poet Jóhann Sigurjónsson. The combination of the two writers’ thoughts is embodied in the union of the drive of black metal with more traditional soundscapes of acoustic guitar, accordion, flute and bouzouki.
