thedarkproject | Entries tagged with cd reviews

Instead of being out at the Halloween party, I'm indoors, partly to get stuff done, partly because I didn't feel like socialising - especially not at a fancy dress event - and also because I've felt a bit ill again. When I got home from seeing

jen_whitewave at the pub last night (where I also saw my Dio-listening next-room-neighbour, who didn't recognise me!) I felt really dizzy. At the time it seemed a bit excessive considering I'd only drunk a tiny amount, but I thought I'd sleep it off. How wrong I was when I woke up this morning with the world seeming to lag about 250 milliseconds behind my mind whenever I moved or looked around, and my balance being completely shot. Fun. Still, I dragged myself to work and it seemed to get a bit better as the day drew on.

In musical news, I have been furnished with a large batch of lyrics for The Band. My task is to record a mere 4 or 5 lines of these to see how bad I am at it. Wish me luck. Oh, and does anybody have any hints on recording vocals? (I'm looking at

soldatengrab especially, among others.) I seem to have trouble getting them to sound right, even after rolling off the bass, pushing up treble and presence, compressing it so stuff isn't too quiet, adding a bit of reverb, etc.

Mini CD-review time, on stuff I've got since last time, just over 4 months' worth:

5/5
Dawn Of Solace - The Darkness (gothic metal)
Forest Of Shadows - Departure (doom metal)
Funeral - From These Wounds (doom metal)

4/5
Ablaze In Hatred - Deceptive Awareness (doom metal)
Amorphis - Silent Waters (progressive metal)
Fields Of The Nephilim - Mourning Sun (gothic rock/metal)
Keen Of The Crow - Hyborea (doom metal)
Keen Of The Crow - Premonition (doom metal)
Moonsorrow - Viides Luku- Hävitetty (progressive/black/symphonic/folk/metal/whatever)
Shape Of Despair - Angels Of Distress (funeral doom metal)

3/5
Amorphis - Tuonela (progressive metal)
Before The Dawn - 4:17am (melodic death metal/gothic metal)
Canaan - Brand New Babylon (gothic/ambient)
Cemetery - The Beast Divine (industrial/gothic metal)
Charon - Downhearted (gothic metal)
Diabolical Masquerade - Death's Design (black metal/progressive/soundtrack)
Funeral - Tragedies/Tristesse (funeral doom metal)
Keep Of Kalessin - Armada (black metal - or 'hyperspeed death thrash' as one nitpicky person called it on Last.fm)
Lilitu - The Dolores Lesion (though only listened to it once...) (gothic metal)
al)
Lake Of Tears - Greatest Tears Vol. 1 (gothic doom metal to rock)
My Shameful - The Return To Nothing (funeral doom met
Octavia Sperati - Grace Submerged (gothic/doom metal)
Tiamat - Wildhoney (gothic rock/metal)
The Gathering - Nighttime Birds (gothic rock/metal)

2/5
Keep Of Kalessin - Agnen - A Journey Through The Dark (black metal)
The Meads Of Asphodel - The Excommunication of Christ
Mistress Of The Dead - Buried (funeral/drone doom)

1/5
Apocryphal Voice - Still Trapped (no fucking clue, and I don't think the composer knew either)

Current Mood: indifferent
Current Music: Ablaze In Hatred - "Closure Of Life"

Has it really been over 6 months since I last rated the cds I bought? Shocking. Anyway, since the last time I did this I've got the following forty or so cds, listed here with their 'genre' just so that you can all disagree with my classifications.

5/5
Amorphis - Eclipse (progressive/gothic)
Dark Tranquillity - Fiction (melodic death)

4/5
Before The Dawn - My Darkness (gothic metal)
Before The Dawn - The Ghost (melodic death)
Cemetary - Godless Beauty (gothic doom)
Conan The Barbarian soundtrack
Forest Silence - Philosophy of Winter (doom/black metal)
Insomnium - In the Halls of Awaiting (melodic death)
Katatonia - Dance of December Souls (doom)
Lacuna Coil - Unleashed Memories (gothic metal)
Mael Mórdha - Gealltacht Mael Mórdha (gaelic doom metal)
November's Doom - The Pale Haunt Departure (gothic doom)
Paradise Lost - In Requiem (gothic metal)
Primordial - A Journey's End (folk/black metal)
Primordial - Storm Before Calm (folk/black metal)
Primordial - The Gathering Wilderness (folk/black metal)
Saturnus - Martyre (gothic doom)
Saturnus - Veronika decides to die (gothic doom)

3/5
At The Gates - Terminal Spirit Disease (melodic death)
Dissection - Storm of the Light's Bane (black metal)
Lacuna Coil - Comalies (gothic metal)
Mourning Beloveth - The Sullen Sulcus (doom metal)
November's Doom - The Novella Reservoir (gothic doom metal)
Opeth - Deliverance (progressive/death)
Primordial - Imrama (folk/black metal)
Sentenced - Crimson (gothic metal)
Sirenia - Nine Destinies and a Downfall (gothic metal)
Swallow The Sun - Hope (doom metal)
SuidAkrA - Caledonia (folk/power/melodic death)

2/5
At The Gates - With Fear I Kiss The Burning Darkness (melodic death)
Bladerunner soundtrack
In Flames - Come Clarity (melodic death)
The Last of the Mohicans soundtrack
Opeth - Damnation (acoustic/progressive)
Scar Symmetry - Pitch Black Progress (melodic death)
Sentenced - Amok/Love and Death (gothic metal)
Soilwork - Stabbing The Drama (melodic death)
Soilwork - A Predator's Portrait (melodic death)
Sonata Arctica - Reckoning Night (power metal)
Type O Negative - Dead Again (gothic metal/NYHC :P)

Recommendations, comments, criticisms? Go right ahead.

Current Mood: bored

Scoring of stuff I bought around last time:

5/5:
Doom:VS - Aeternum Vale
Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain

4/5:
Morgion - Among Majestic Ruin
Sentenced - The Cold White Light

3/5
Crematory - Illusions, Awake, Transmigration, s/t - one of these is 3/5 and the others are 2/5, though I have no idea which is which
Iron Maiden - A Matter Of Life And Death
Sentenced - Down
Sentenced - Frozen
Hypocrisy - The Fourth Dimension

2/5:
Celtic Frost - Monotheist
Arch Enemy - Anthems Of Rebellion

1/5:
Lake Of Tears - BlackBrickRoad (not my sort of thing really)

...and stuff bought since then:
Amon Amarth - With Oden On Our Side - 5/5
Insomnium - Above The Weeping World - 4/5
Hans Zimmer - Gladiator sound track - 4/5
Draconian - The Burning Halo - 4/5
My Dying Bride - A Line of Deathless Kings - 3/5 or 4/5, not decided...
Turisas - Battle Metal - 3/5

My cd purchases are slowing down at the moment, with me no longer passing Reveal Records in Derby every day, and having cleared out Selectadisc in town of everything worth having. However, tomorrow

ironlord should hopefully have 4 more cds from his bulk order for me:
SENTENCED - Crimson
SATURNUS - Veronika decides to die
LACUNA COIL - Comalies
AMORPHIS - Eclipse

Why do I type all this out? I don't know. I think it'll be interesting to look back and see if my tastes change over time.

Current Music: Amorphis - Am Universum

I'm unemployed! For this weekend anyway. Yesterday I finished at my telecoms/finance job and on Monday I start working on computer game development. If nothing else it should be more interesting, and I'll get to draw upon my skills more. Leaving on Friday was a bit sad actually, as I get sentimental easily and everybody was really pleasant in saying goodbye at the end. They were probably just glad I was leaving though. :)

My last cd purchase post was here. Having listened to those, I shall rate them thus:

5 out of 5:

October Tide - Grey Dawn
Novembre - Dreams D'Azur
Sentenced - The Funeral Album

4 out of 5:

Beseech - Souls Highway
Amon Amarth - Fate of Norns
Still It Cries - Take Leave

3 out of 5:
Opeth - Deliverance
Arch Enemy - Wages of Sin

2 out of 5:
Sentenced - North From Here

Need more listens to judge:
Tiamat - Clouds
Cemetary - Sundown
Old Man's Child - Ill-Natured Spiritual Invasion
Lacuna Coil - The EPs

Since then, I've bought the following:
Crematory - Illusions
Crematory - Awake
Crematory - Transmigration
Crematory - s/t
Iron Maiden - A Matter Of Life And Death
Celtic Frost - Monotheist
Sentenced - The Cold White Light
Sentenced - Down
Sentenced - Frozen
Hypocrisy - The Fourth Dimension
Doom:VS - Aeternum Vale
Agalloch - Ashes Against The Grain
Morgion - Among Majestic Ruin
Lake Of Tears - BlackBrickRoad
Arch Enemy - Anthems Of Rebellion

I'm currently listening to the Doom:VS album. This album - and definitely the current track - certainly conforms to doom metal rule 39; it is "crushing," "monolithic," "depressive," and "suicidal". And that is a good thing.

I just bought an orchestral 'virtual instrument' for recording, well, orchestral stuff like strings and choirs. My band isn't going to be a live concern in the forseeable future due to a complete lack of suitable candidates, so I may as well write stuff that works better recorded than live. Shame the person selling me the orchestra stuff left it until after I paid for the product to mention the additional $30 delivery charge. Grrrr.

Yet again, the place I am living in has been sold to a new landlord. This time, the guy has no intention of turfing everybody out. However it does lead me to contemplate the legal issues of all this. I don't doubt that the old landlord has the right to sell the house. However he can't sell my tenancy, surely. It's a signed contract made between me and him, not me and whoever he decides to pass it on to. You can't just assign those to anybody; what if the second person is not someone I would choose to enter into a binding agreement with? I wonder if the old landlord is still liable for ensuring my services, and so on. In particular, the hot water has stopped working, and I told the new guy about this earlier, who is going to attempt to fix it in an hour or two when he gets here. It would be nice to have a shower without the risk of dying of hypothermia.

Current Mood: impressed
Current Location: 52.965378,-1.152534
Current Music: Doom:VS - "The Faded Earth"

I've listened to all those cds I mentioned in April, and as much for my benefit as anyone else's, here's the verdict, in rough descending order of quality:

5 out of 5:
Daylight Dies - Dismantling Devotion
Charon - Songs For The Sinners

4 out of 5:
In Flames - Lunar Strain (Re-release)
Morgion - Solinari
Forefather - Ours Is The Kingdom
Sirenia - An Elixir For Existence

3 out of 5:
Lacuna Coil - In A Reverie
SuidAkrA - Command To Charge
Katatonia - The Great Cold Distance
Rapture - Songs For The Withering
Insomnium - Since The Day It All Came Down
At The Gates - The Red In The Sky is Ours
Amorphis - Am Universum
Nightwish - Wishmaster
Emperor - IX Equilibrium
Hecate Enthroned - Upon Promethean Shores (Unscripted Waters)

2 out of 5:
Lacuna Coil - Karmacode

1 out of 5:
Anathema - A Fine Day to Exit

Since April, I've picked up the following:

Beseech - Souls Highway
October Tide - Grey Dawn
Novembre - Dreams D'Azur
Still It Cries - Take Leave (signed by the band! Not once, not twice, but three times! Those crazy Germans! Thanks, Matthias.)
Sentenced - North From Here
Sentenced - The Funeral Album
Opeth - Deliverance
Cemetary - Sundown
Amon Amarth - Fate of Norns
Tiamat - Clouds
Old Man's Child - Ill-Natured Spiritual Invasion
Arch Enemy - Wages of Sin
Lacuna Coil - The EPs

Luckily I am running out of cds to buy locally, or all my disposable income would disappear.