• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

The Metal Thread |OT2| All Riffs, No Gifs

Killer Queen said:
Checked out Sorceress and yeah I dunno dudes. there's a lot there and some good tracks and I'll need a few listens but it feels really inconsistent and I don't like that.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I agree with this. After three listens I'm not sure how I feel overall. It's not bad, but I'm not sure it hits the highs that the last two even did. Might grow on me quite a bit though. The last two were growers.
 
Devin Townsend Transcendence -

I went in with low expectations, even though I'm a huge mark for the lush, metalpop wall of Devin that the last few releases have been about. Sky Blue is my favorite Devin album.

Higher is an all timer. The hook on this song immediately got my attention and elevated the whole album. This part exemplifies the kind of music that makes him such captivating artist. He cuts right through the wall of sound and makes such a personal connection.

The last few songs are kind of unimaginative, but the rest of the album hasn't let me down and I'm on the second time through.

The remake of Truth is pretty sick and a great opener.
 
RDreamer said:
Yeah, I agree with this. After three listens I'm not sure how I feel overall. It's not bad, but I'm not sure it hits the highs that the last two even did. Might grow on me quite a bit though. The last two were growers.
Click to expand...
This is something I strongly agree with.

Spwn said:
What's your opinion on Pale Communion? Because when I first heard it a couple of years ago, I felt it was shit. Now I think it's the shit. But I am cautious - Opeth has been pretty inconsistent with its output since Deliverance.
Click to expand...
I actually really like it and Heritage which I know to a lot of Opeth fans is blasphemous but I think both albums accomplish what they try to do very well, I also feel that "Moon Above, Sun Below" and "The Devils Orchard" are some of the best tracks the band has written. Pale Communion is incredibly consistent and an album I enjoy listening to all the way through.

Current Opinions on Sorceress:

Sorceress however feels kinda like the antithesis of what people come to expect from Opeth, instead of bouncing between moods and musical themes during a single song they jump in and out from song to song while each track is fairly straightforward, and none of this is objectively bad, but it's not something I'm a fan of either. I guess I can understand wanting to change direction after 25 years but if anything Sorceress feels like the growing pains you'd expect from the band post Watershed rather than post Pale Communion.

I'll also say that "Will O' the Whisp" is definitely the weakest and most lackluster track on the album, it's somewhat better when you listen to the album sll the way through because it sits between the two heaviest tracks on the album but it's still too musically straightforward and boring for me to fully appreciate, it actually just makes me want to go listen to any other acoustic Opeth track.

The Wilde Flowers and Chrysalis are my two favorite tracks on the album that I'm sure will please many, followed by Sorceress and Era in no particular order. Still undecided on everything else, though Sorceress 2 is pretty good also. Persephone and Persephone (Slight Return) are also probably the only interludes I've ever liked on an album, with the latter leading smoothly out from Era. The Seventh Soujurn is also a really odd track and one of my complaints with this album is it almost feels like emotional impact and feeling were traded for technical prowess and i think too much noodling kinda takes away from this album, especially when they're not working within a time frame of 10-12 minutes, there's less room to breathe.

Lyrically I really like the theme and ideas but I think it's failed by the music. I think the lyrics are much better suited to Still Life , Blackwater Park or even Ghost Reveries and its definitely a cool idea and concept, just maybe not for this album.

As of right now I'd put it below Heritage and Pale Communion, but I'll see where I'm at when the album officially drops as I've only given it a twice over.
 
Yeah, i'm not into Sorceress.
You can easily recognize great production and it's incredibly well played, but the album is just, boring, it lacks energy and there isn't a single song that got me hooked, i guess Chrysalis was my favourite one. Era down the end of it woke me up a little. Don't get me wrong, it's not a horrible album by any means, but at first listen at least i can tell i won't be coming back a lot for it.

A lot of people liked the song title, i would imagine if you are of those, you might be fine, i thought the album even picks it up a bit from there.
 
Tankard said:
Yeah, i'm not into Sorceress.
You can easily recognize great production and it's incredibly well played, but the album is just, boring, it lacks energy and there isn't a single song that got me hooked, i guess Chrysalis was my favourite one. Era down the end of it woke me up a little. Don't get me wrong, it's not a horrible album by any means, but at first listen at least i can tell i won't be coming back a lot for it.

A lot of people liked the song title, i would imagine if you are of those, you might be fine, i thought the album even picks it up a bit from there.
Click to expand...

Maybe it's just the version I have but the production is way too boomy and is very compressed compared to the previous two. Is your leak the 320kbps one?
 
I'll also add that it is technically the heaviest album since Watershed, but the riffs and vocal melodies aren't that interesting so it doesn't amount to much.
Chrysalis sounds like it should belong on Ghost Reveries so that's a positive.
 
Forever Changes said:
Maybe it's just the version I have but the production is way too boomy and is very compressed compared to the previous two. Is your leak the 320kbps one?
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, the leaked version isn't great, it's 278kbps, but it didn't sound bad to me, maybe when i listen to it on my headphone it will show up more.
 
I know my post above was pretty long, but if I did a full review/track by track for Sorceress would anyone be interested? There's so much I want to say about the album but I don't wanna shit up the thread with super long posts either.
 
Persephone:
The really beautiful acoustic opener to the album, it almost has a Spanish flavor to it. It's rather simple but I think it works thematically with the album, again it's a step down from their previous acoustic songs but it works. It ends with a short poem by the "Sorceress", an introspective look into her life as she realizes it's a "wretched deception [she is] creating"

Sorceress:
The title track of the album and the first single, definitely one of the stronger points of the album although I personally find the constant chugging to be boring. Lyrically I assume its from the perspective of those the Sorceress encounters in her life and how they perceive her. Musically I think outside of the chugging it's really great and it feels like a proper evolution to Opeth 's sound, or at the very least a different direction. It's straight forward but it feels balanced.

The Wilde Flowers: This and Chrysalis are the strongest songs on the album. I love the main riff, guitar work and vocals on this track, its groovy and feels evil in a cartoony way, almost like the theme to an 80s villain. The middle section is where the solos are and they're great, extensive and almost a little pretentious maybe but it works, after that it leads back into the great chorus, before going into a softer section reminiscent of Pale Communion. This and the preceding track along with Chrysalis while each have hints of previous albums they really feel like their own, they have a distinct sound and I think these will be the defining "Sorceress" tracks. The ending of this track goes into this really jazzy eerie section with some phenomenal drumming before it comes to an abrupt halt.

Will O' the Whisp:
My least favorite track on the album but it's growing on me a lot, 7 listens in. My biggest issue with this track (though it's not the only song on the album like this) is that there feels like a disconnect between the lyrics and music. It feels like it should be more bleak as at this point the titular character seems to be having an epiphany and is in a transitional point in their life; depending on the person though it can be seen as a bright or bleak thing. Then there's also the fairly simple guitar work which is a personal pet peeve as I really enjoy learning acoustic Opeth songs due to their difficulties, but the finishing solo is quite something. I also feel that the vocal melodies on this track are stronger than some of the ones on the tail end of the album

Chrysalis: At this point the character is making an effort to change themselves and their life and I guess there's something inspiring about the story. It opens with a pounding riff that would be right at home on Ghost Reveries and really if slipped into that album with keyboards turned down few would notice if they shut their brains off and had it playing in the background. But while I do really like the track this is where one of Sorceress's major problems starts to become apparent. The guitar and keyboard solo's do more than enough to keep this one in particular sounding fresh as they're quite intense but remove those and add in a few growls and it really does sound like it was ripped straight off of Ghost Reveries which is a good and a bad thing. Good because Chrysalis is a great track and Ghost Reveries is a great album but "Sorceress" as an album stops sounding like it's own special piece in Opeth's discography and more of an amalgamation of everything the band has done and not in a good way.

Sorceress 2: is the following track, another simple acoustic one, but more musically bleak and it would be great had it not been for the awful and boring vocal effect on Mikals voice. I feel it ruins what would be otherwise a great track. Musically it feels like it could've been on MAYH or Heritage easily which again is the problem I stated earlier as it contributes to the album feeling disjointed and less of its own entity which are the two major issues with this album as a whole.

The Seventh Soujurn: The song has a strong opening with a really cool middle Eastern vibe, almost a tad malicious and at any moment it feels like it should burst into another pounding ghost Reveries esque song with powerful riffs....but it never does. It kinda just drones on instrumentally until the very end of the track where it doesn't get any heavier but some vocals do come in and while it's a kind of cool experiment it really doesn't feel like it serves any purpose other than to be a few minutes of noodling, orchestra and filler. Like the kind of thing the band would play live over speakers while they take a break. The last minute and twenty are interesting but considering the reputation of the main riff it feels like it should've been a 3 minute track at most which would've been more forgiveable for well, filler.

A Strange Brew: Overall the album I wouldn't say is weak or bad. It opens with some ghastly vocals and keyboard, really reminiscent of Damnation and the more eerie soft moments of Blackwater Park. The first melody/solo strongly reminds me of another track in their discography but I can't put my finger on it. After the solo ends the track abruptly breaks into another weird jazzy section like the opening of "Sorceress" but much faster and once that ends and the vocals and distorted guitars the track really picks up, but it's say this is maybe the worst offender of sounding like a mashup of way too many sounds, from Damnation to Sorceress to Heritage is what it feels like. Maybe its unfair to keep comparing the tracks to past works but they share such strong ties musically it's hard not to, especially when every album up until this point has felt incredibly distinct. The last minute 1:45 of the song pick up once more and I feel this is the most interesting part of the song, it's nothing to write home about but it feels entirely it's own rather than apart of something else.

A Fleeting Glance: is up next, this one opens with some very nice acoustic guitar work and soft singing by Mikael. This one is a little closer to Pale Communion but in a fairly inoffensive way as it sounds just as much it's own. It passes between the acoustic sections, and more keyboard and bass focused sections to some nice distorted guitar sections with a pretty cool riff though no section is really amazing on its own as each is fairly short and simple it's a nice journey from one end of the song to the other as it progressively becomes mpre uplifting followed by another great guitar solo (which the album is full of) at the tail end of the track before letting you down gently preparing you for "Era"

Era: This one is an interesting one. It opens with a very gentle keyboard melody repeated a few times throughout the first minute before allowing the guitar and keyboard to enter and flourish followed by the drums and Mikael. This song is a great song but it also feels like it was written for Pale Communion rather than Sorceress. It's a little simple riff wise as the riff is basically a few power chords repeated over and over again until you reach around the 4:00 mark ("the end of an Era") and the last section is probably the most special, probably one of the highest points in Opeth's prog rock ventures and it would make the likes of Jimmy Page proud, the "chorus" is pretty repetitive and ends abruptly.

Persephone 2:Era very abruptly ends to lead into this short outro as the Sorceress (just going to assume her name is Persephone) talks a bit and then it just kinda ends, it's not really it's own track as it's the true ending of "Era" named Persephone to mark the ending of the album and her journey from the beginning to the end as Era is pretty on the nose about "the end of an era" and really it's the end of an era for the old Persephone and the beginning for a new one. I didn't pay too much attention to the lyrics all the way through but these are just my basic interpretations of the story.

So final verdict: Sorceress is a decent to good album that has some really cool moments in its titular track, Chrysalis and especially the Wilde Flowers but it's too similar to its predecessors to stand out on its own among their discography overall. It's not at all bad, it just doesn't have the same lustre as a new Opeth album should because there are many moments that feel "been there done that" despite their attempt to do something completely different. The songs themselves are also generally really straightforward which is okay but I've come to expect a few more surprises from Opeth and when they do transition it can feel too disjointed and done for the sake of sounding cool rather than emotional (which there's also an overall lack of)
 
MezzoForte said:
Malleus (MA) - Storm of Witchcraft

killer, killer Celtic Frost worship from Boston. A true blackened rager, this one. Total hails and support to these guys. Just dropped today!
Click to expand...

Well you weren't kidding. If I didn't hear the vocals I'd say it's early Celtic Frost. After the second track I sort of lost interest though. (Monotheist = best CF!)

MezzoForte said:
Doom Snake Cult (NV) - Love, Sorrow, Doom

this is sort of a bonus rec for people who are way into the Celtic Frost tone. This is a much more trippy, dissonant, and challenging release but it's a classic in my mind. It was also blessed with killer new artwork for the recent Nuclear War Now! reissue.
Click to expand...

This is more interesting because it's more unique. It has the CF sound, but the end result is trippy death/doom. I'll listen to more of it. The sound effects on the first 40s of the first track are quite annoying and unnecessary. Luckily they don't seem to return.
 
OmegaDragon said:
Well you weren't kidding. If I didn't hear the vocals I'd say it's early Celtic Frost. After the second track I sort of lost interest though. (Monotheist = best CF!)
Click to expand...

I respect that stance and Monotheist as an album but I can't put it over those early pillars of extreme metal.

OmegaDragon said:
This is more interesting because it's more unique. It has the CF sound, but the end result is trippy death/doom. I'll listen to more of it. The sound effects on the first 40s of the first track are quite annoying and unnecessary. Luckily they don't seem to return.
Click to expand...

for sure, it doesn't open to the listener with a particularly inviting track but it does establish the theme of hallucination immediately. Real nasty album.
 
Devin Townsend Transcendence Disc 2 -

There is some great stuff on this.

There's a cover of Victim! Holy fuck. This might actually retain the energy of the original recording, which even among the ridiculous stuff on Physicist stood out in terms of sheer intensity. I didn't know he had it in him anymore. I thought it might be directly from Physicist if it wasn't for the thicker, muddier sound.

Lexus is kind of like a early 2000's Static X kind of thing, but it has some interesting twists. Cool song.

Time Overload is the standout, it has such an addicting groove and hook. This probably would have made it on the album if Devin wasn't as intentional as he was keeping the material suited for the concept.
 
Killer Queen said:
snip
Click to expand...

Good review, agree with a lot of points, the cadence still seem way slow for me.



Regiruler said:
Just because it's Talk Like a Pirate Day doesn't give permission for actual piracy, argggggh.
Click to expand...

I for one, do not think i will buy Sorceress, at least for now, but i pay for Spotify and i still buy albums, i have both new Insomnium and Alcest pre-ordered and i still will download the leak before it releases. Sorry if the talk makes you upset, but you don't have the full picture here.
 
What wizardry is this? I get to see the greatest band on earth, the mighty Blind Guardian, two years in a row! It's such a rare treat, the likes of which I'll never experience again.

Friday can't come soon enough. I'm ready to submit all of my imagination to the other side \m/

For those who've been - what's the merch situation like? One of my big regrets from last year's tour was my low-paying, part-time job at the time. But now that I'm in an actual career, I'm planning on raiding the merch booth as soon as I enter the venue. I only hope the offerings are enticing enough to vacuum out my bank account.
 
MetalSucks used to a be a fun site but eventually just turned into the shittiest TMZ of metal clickbait site. losers

I won those caption contests a few times. I got signed Ratt and Athiest cds, no regrets.
 
So I tried listening to Meshuggah around 5 years ago and it just didn't click for me at all. I'm now listening to Nostrum (from the new album) and I'm really liking it. Hopefully the rest of the album is as good. It could also be that I'm just digging something that's not Swedish death metal since that's all I listened to this weekend.

Also gonna post some classic Maiden because it's Monday and I need this.
 
Metal Sludge was the original TMZ-metal site.
 
What are good sites to check reviews? I actually dont really have a clue these days and mostly just stick to bands i know or things i find by clicking around on Spotify.
 
Regiruler said:
I'm enjoying Heroes of Mighty Magic tremendously, but it's definitely an album you need to pace yourself through or you burn out.
Two song increments at a time seems to be ideal, with the first song being the last one you listened to in the previous listening.

I wouldn't be able to tell you the plot if I tried. The narration tracks are gone (thank God) but it's like being thrown into From Chaos to Eternity without any idea what the fuck is going on.

Fabio sounds a little different than he usually does on his guest appearance, and given that the volcalist already sounds like him quite a bit, the mixing hid the difference, so I can't really tell where he appeared on the 10 minute track. I was pretty sure it was him about 3/5ths of the way through, though.
Click to expand...

Quite a bit late on this one.

I'm finishing my first run through of this album as I type this. This album is the most over the top "Flower Metal" album I've ever heard. It's like Rhapsody shot out of a canon into a rainbow made of skittles and glitter with the Disney castle in the background.

I dig it, though. It took me about 2 tracks to acclimate to just how happy and unabashedly triumphant it is. It's easy to see why it's been so divisive online after the first 10 seconds of the first song. I suppose the purple flame belching dragon of sparkling mighty might on the cover would have been a good gauge too.
 
TheLastCandle said:
Quite a bit late on this one.

I'm finishing my first run through of this album as I type this. This album is the most over the top "Flower Metal" album I've ever heard. It's like Rhapsody shot out of a canon into a rainbow made of skittles and glitter with the Disney castle in the background.

I dig it, though. It took me about 2 tracks to acclimate to just how happy and unabashedly triumphant it is. It's easy to see why it's been so divisive online after the first 10 seconds of the first song. I suppose the purple flame belching dragon of sparkling mighty might on the cover would have been a good gauge too.
Click to expand...
There was a label of "disney metal" thrown around that I actually quite agree with, especially for the back half of the album.
 
Andrew Korenchkin said:
Metal Archives.
Click to expand...
The archives are good for gauging what material to check out if you're looking into a band for the first time, it just sucks when sometimes an album's rating gets dropped because of one dude (who may not even like the genre to begin with) ranking it like 2% worst album of all time when everyone else is 80% or above. If you aren't paying attention to how the average is broken down you can overlook good stuff.
 
regarding review sites, I really miss Global Domination :( They were relentlessly tough to flirt with and ruthless if they didn't like a thing.
And they were hilarious as well. I trusted their reviews 666%
 
You know, in a way Sorceress could kind of be seen as a self commentary on the band itself and its past/present/future as Persephone grows from being a dark and evil figure to someone brighter and she/they reach "the end of an era and start a new" and the album musically starts off fairly heavy and dark before moving to more progressive sounds. Wonder if all that is intentional or if I'm reaching, but it kinda makes sense.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

The greatest movie composition of all time is
41
721
Dithadder replied
The greatest nation state composition of all time is
6
246
calico replied
Can we stop with all the copycat actor threads?
9
532
Baemono replied
Android: All of a sudden videos on default play muted in the Photos app(not Google Photos)
7
162
diffusionx replied
Black Metal Without Distortion Is Just Surf Rock
Cringe 
21
651
Grenseal replied
Top Bottom