Rolling top 10 for 2011

[J-Man]

I got this CD today from Ken a laser's Edge, and I have to say this band deserves a seperate thread, holy shit. I have heard alot of music in my life, from the 60's 70's 80's, a little of the 90's, and most of you know my taste, but yet I am open to anything that gives me a warm fuzzy, like that FU XI from China, but this band MAGIC PIE, just gives me goose bumps and a warm fuzzy for the music i haven't really had in a while. To me it is a cross between some old classic YES, with some STARCASTLE thrown in, and for good measure some FLOWER KINGS, but all with a little heavier edge, but not to much. It is by far the best to come out so far in 2011, It will be in the running for my #1 for 2011 most definetly, but there is also the new MYRATH due very soon that will probably knock everything out of the #1 slot.

 

[Taliwakker]

Been a GREAT year so far!

1. The Dear Hunter - The Color Spectrum (This one isn't even fair)
2. Hotel of the Laughing Tree - Terror & Everything After
3. Protest the Hero - Scurrilous
4. The Devin Townsend Project - Deconstruction
5. While Heaven Wept - Fear of Infinity
6. dredg - Chuckles & Mr. Squeezy
7. Jolly - The Audio Guide to Happiness
8. Fair to Midland - Arrows & Anchors
9. Battle Circus - Battle Circus
10. Symphony X - Iconoclast

Bit dissapointed in The Dear Hunter and Hotel albums i must say....pity.

Scurrilous is pretty awesome though.

 

[Soundscape]

Bit dissapointed in The Dear Hunter and Hotel albums i must say....pity.

Scurrilous is pretty awesome though.

what specifically are you disappointed in The Dear Hunter and Hotel of the Laughing Tree?

however, if you had said you were disappointed with Scurrilous, I'd be with you. That one is definitely among the biggest turkeys of 2011 for me. Poor/compressed mix of the cymbals on most of it, much of it sounds like retread of Fortress, no acoustic sections (like Kezia), and a lot of it sounds samey to me.

Just in comparing those issues I may have, TDH and HOTLT's records, I can safely claim none of those things are true.

 

[Taliwakker]

what specifically are you disappointed in The Dear Hunter and Hotel of the Laughing Tree?

however, if you had said you were disappointed with Scurrilous, I'd be with you. That one is definitely among the biggest turkeys of 2011 for me.

The Dear Hunter were always going to have a hard time following up ACT III. My main problem is that a majority of the songs on the album all seem to have sections within them that annoy or frustrate me
eg the song 'Fall and Flee' is all going along nicely building to the chorus and then the drums kick into this retarded beat...ruins the song for me.
'What Time Taught Us' is cool and then at some point the melody just starts repeating itself.....like a 64 bar chorus where 8 bars would have done the job....then its over.
'The Canopy'...i hate that country style slide lapsteel guitar.
I could go on.....but i reckon if i was making a TDH compilation disc then i'd be putting no more than 3 songs off this album.


Hotel of the Laughing Tree i bought blind based on many positive reviews and hype and comparrisons to TDH. Gave it lots of listens and came to the conclusion that the singer was average and if the songs were any good i hadn't noticed because his averageness was masking everything going into my earholes. Definately TDH-lite.....a Roxy Blue to TDH's Van Halen.


Scurrilous is nowhere near as good as Fortress.....but repeated listens revealed more goodness.


I still don't have a fave for 2011...no standouts

 

[Soundscape]

Hotel of the Laughing Tree i bought blind based on many positive reviews and hype and comparrisons to TDH. Gave it lots of listens and came to the conclusion that the singer was average and if the songs were any good i hadn't noticed because his averageness was masking everything going into my earholes. Definately TDH-lite.....a Roxy Blue to TDH's Van Halen.

I don't really follow your explanation here. What exactly does the word "average" mean?

If you are meaning they aren't good or are annoying or something along those lines, while I wouldn't agree, I would understand better what your issue with them is.

But if you had heard their debut EP "Old Dominion" (which I suspect you did not) you'd notice how AJ (HOTLT's lead singer) has come A LONG WAY in his ability to annunciate and frankly just write better and more memorable vocal melodies.

And the same can also be said about the instrumental parts of their music. The songwriting is just much more mature.

If you can't get past the vocals, that's one thing, but if that's not the issue, it's too bad because Terror and Everything After is filled with some of the best moments of any album this year. Plenty of earworms among them.

 

[Fire breath]

Since this thread is here at the top I might as well mention I have a new number one above Pagan's Mind. As expected it's Powerwolf. What an incredible album it really is.

 

[Taliwakker]

I don't really follow your explanation here. What exactly does the word "average" mean?

If you are meaning they aren't good or are annoying or something along those lines, while I wouldn't agree, I would understand better what your issue with them is.

But if you had heard their debut EP "Old Dominion" (which I suspect you did not) you'd notice how AJ (HOTLT's lead singer) has come A LONG WAY in his ability to annunciate and frankly just write better and more memorable vocal melodies.

And the same can also be said about the instrumental parts of their music. The songwriting is just much more mature.

If you can't get past the vocals, that's one thing, but if that's not the issue, it's too bad because Terror and Everything After is filled with some of the best moments of any album this year. Plenty of earworms among them.

1. Average in this case means less than good.
Eg "That curry i had for lunch was really fucking average"

2. I haven't heard the ep and based on your assesment of how far the vocals/music have improved since then i think i shall give it a miss.

3. I've given them worms plenty of time(spun it 3-4 times again since i last posted).....i just don't hear anything musically or melodically that make them standout...nothing has jumped out and made me think " fuck me... thats a clever arrangement", no killer riffs and i ain't humming their stuff in my head.

Its cool that you dig it though.

 

[KingsGene]

1 Within Temptaion - The Unforgiving
2 Pagan's Mind - Heavenly Ecstasy
3 Black Country Communion - 2
4 Whitesnake - Forevermore
5 Evergrey - Glorious Collision
6 Dream Theater - A Dramatic Turn of Events
7 Riverside - Memories In My Head
8 Blackfield - Welcome To My DNA
9 Lost in Thought - Opus Arise
10 Voyager - The Meaning of I

It'll be a shame when the new Redemption knocks one of these out... however I'm a little nervous about "This Mortal Coil"s production based on what I heard of the one song.

 

[Fire breath]

The sound on Redemption is very disappointing. Far too murky IMO. I mean it's not unlistenable or bad but I don't think that's the type of sound a clean prog metal band should have. I guess they were going for a heavier and denser sound with thrashier riffing to the fore and vocals a little bit deeper in the mix and not so airy and light.

 

[Sir Exar Kun]

The sound on Redemption is very disappointing. Far too murky IMO. I mean it's not unlistenable or bad but I don't think that's the type of sound a clean prog metal band should have. I guess they were going for a heavier and denser sound with thrashier riffing to the fore and vocals a little bit deeper in the mix and not so airy and light.

That's disappointing to hear. What do you think of the album in general? I've noticed that it seems like the songs that they "release" as promo material always tend to be the thrashier side of the band, and I'm hoping that is not a general trend of where their direction is headed.

My copy is on the way ($13 for the 2 disc version from Ken?!? AWESOME!) and cannot wait to hear this.

 

[Fire breath]

I like the songs from the latter half of the album best. They are less thrashy and more proggy with better vocal melodies. I think this is not as immediate as Snowfall overall. They are still an amazingly talented band though. I'd rate the album 7.5/10

 

[TheLongshot]

It is tough when you don't have a huge amount of new albums for the year.

So far:

Symphony X - Iconoclast
Voyager - The Meaning Of I
Phideaux - Snowtorch
Beardfish - Mammoth
Cynthesis - Deevolution
Clandestine - The Invalid
While Heaven Wept - Fear Of Infinity
Weird Al Yankovic - Alpocalypse
Devin Townsend - Deconstruction
Leperous - Bilateral

To be fair, most of these need more time to digest. The fact that I haven't been able to listen to music at work for most of the year has hurt the reps some of these albums have gotten.

 

[Susperia66]

HAha did you not see the thread I posted dedicated to how much I love that CD? The people who gave it shit are dorks. That band pretty much sucked since One Kill Wonder constantly repeating themselves note for note.

Wow. I thought they really picked up steam after OKW, and Dead Eye is one of my favorite metal albums of all time. They have been in a free fall since then. To each his own.