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IanThrash
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Dec 26, 2011 10:56 pm
Posts: 1000
Location: Argentina
PostPosted: Fri Feb 21, 2014 11:44 pm 
 

Porman wrote:
iamntbatman wrote:
Hmm, well. I would say that the new Tribulation album is certainly "Ghost influenced", especially in the lead guitar playing, but that's almost entirely because Tribulation's lead guitarist is also Ghost's lead guitarist.


Yeah, that might be true. Zaars did play in Repugnant with Forge.




Yeah, last year Enforcer came to Argentina and I asked Olof about this, he kinda confirmed it
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Abominatrix
Harbinger of Metal

Joined: Fri Oct 24, 2003 12:15 pm
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Location: Canada
PostPosted: Mon Feb 24, 2014 11:14 am 
 

So, does anyone have this yet?
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unpersons
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Thu Apr 19, 2012 4:07 am
Posts: 20
Location: United States
PostPosted: Mon Feb 24, 2014 3:16 pm 
 

Abominatrix wrote:
So, does anyone have this yet?

It leaked a few days ago if that counts. I'm sure Europeans have it.

It's a good record. A lot of people who loved the first one are going to hate this one, but if you liked the EP, you'll probably enjoy Sweven. It's very much progressive metal with a death metal edge to it. Very strange, very interesting.

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Abominatrix
Harbinger of Metal

Joined: Fri Oct 24, 2003 12:15 pm
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Location: Canada
PostPosted: Mon Feb 24, 2014 3:28 pm 
 

Yeah.
I was up really, really late Sunday morning after a crazy night and wanted something new and interesting to listen to. So I took the privilege of finding and listening to the album online.

And well, after one listen..I think this is quite extraordinary. That teaser song was compared with Tribulation but I find that, as good as Tribulation are, this new Morbus Chron seems much subtler, stranger and more challenging. You're right to say it's basically a progressive metal record, in the sense that it's thinking very much outside the box, but without incorporating any elements that would immediately mark it as a non-death metal record to the uninitiated. There's no unusual instrumentation and not even any traditional metal leads or guitar solos. Instead we get clean guitar casually placed atop the rest of the instrumentation...as in, the band will be going full throttle with a heavy riff and just have clean guitar plucking away melodies over it as though they have every right to do this and it's just a standard part of their lexicon. They write their clean parts the way they would write any other (heavier) bit of their music, so instead of coming off as being done for contrast or for the sake of adding some "prettiness" to their death metal album, it just seems like part of the normal Morbus Chron songwriting technique. There is really nice chemistry between the band members I think, and the vocals have a faraway reverberating sound that is not at all typical of today's bands, but you can still hear the "howl" in them, so in that sense they call to mind a band like Morgoth or Obituary, just not quite so in your face. Some of the harmonic character of the guitarwork in pieces toward the end of the album remind me a bit of early Anathema or Katatonia works, but here they're delivered by a band with a much more open, loose (in the good sense) approach to playing, and it actually does this style a lot of favours. There are parts that remind me a bit of The Chasm, but less grand and triumphant and more mysterious and foreboding. Got to say, "Ripening Life" is a simply amazing track.

So yeah, after one listen (granted I was in a very receptive mood at the time) this ended up flooring me quite a bit, and I think there will be a lot more revealed once I actually get the album and listen to it more.
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unpersons
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Thu Apr 19, 2012 4:07 am
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Location: United States
PostPosted: Mon Feb 24, 2014 3:41 pm 
 

I haven't noticed as much about it as you have, but what you say is pretty true.

Honestly, that first track they put out from the album piqued my interest very quickly, because there were some weird riffs in it. Just some oddly timed moments with that "jerky" sound they're very good at. The whole album feels like a very natural progression. The first was pretty much just weird doomy death metal, the EP was kinda like somebody took death metal and added Mastodon (if you'll forgive the comparison, that's just the vibe I got), and this one just turns that vibe on its head. I don't even know what to compare it to aside from later Death... and that doesn't even capture it. I feel like if you took Death's more progressive albums and inverted the values something like this would be the product.

And I fucking love that vocal echo, this is going to be a strange comparison too but, something about it reminds me of the ferocity on Dismember's Indecent & Obscene. There's that whole... raging insanity factor to it. It's very nice.

Another thing I noticed a few times throughout was that there were a few parts that sound like if Ghost had gone progressive. The one in Aurora in the Offing that kicks in right around 1:48 and then gets more intense around the 2:00 mark is the first/best example of that. It's got that whole retro-metal/rock sound to it but in the context of modern death metal. (If you don't like Ghost, don't worry, it won't ruin anything. I don't like them anymore either.)

Based on what I've gotten from it so far, this is like a 4.5/5 in my book. There's just so much to love. I've been through it like five times and still can't process everything. It's like every listen there's a bunch of new riffs to be found lol.

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Calamity_Cometh
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Fri Jan 18, 2013 1:36 pm
Posts: 23
PostPosted: Mon Feb 24, 2014 4:11 pm 
 

I can see why people are comparing it to Tribulation's most recent album. It has a different feel from their previous one that I can't describe - more psychedelic maybe? Anyways, I loved Sleepers in the Rift and this album is growing on me. I am a big fan of Tribulation's The Horror and The Formulas of Death too. I was worried that Morbus Chron might regress but I feel like the two bands had a similar shift in sound and I really like what Sweven did. I still hear a lot of Sleepers in the Rift in it, so the change in sound isn't a shock to me.

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unpersons
Mallcore Kid

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Location: United States
PostPosted: Mon Feb 24, 2014 5:34 pm 
 

If you listened to A Saunter Through the Shroud it really makes sense. That record was different enough that you could tell they were interested in evolution and were just testing the waters.

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narsilianshard
Veteran

Joined: Fri Aug 14, 2009 12:22 pm
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Location: PDX
PostPosted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 5:00 pm 
 

Just picked this up. I agree with the Tribulation comparison and welcome it, as Formulas was my favorite album of last year. But this is definitely a bit more subtle and moody, and I really really like it. Love how dynamic it is too, whoever mastered this did an incredible job.

The only downside is that every time I say the name of the album I sound like a child with a speech impediment.
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Jonpo
Hyperc6l6mb6wler

Joined: Tue Jul 31, 2007 10:05 am
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 5:05 pm 
 

All the talk about this album has me really hyped up to check it out. I've never heard the band before but I think I'm going to skip the debut for now and jump straight to Sweven. Death metal with an atmosphere outside of "cavernous tomb" sounds very interesting to me.
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VoidOfEternity
Metal newbie

Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2009 12:18 pm
Posts: 279
PostPosted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 5:27 pm 
 

Regarding the Tribulation comparisons: I actually found this album a lot more enjoyable than Formulas of Death (which was, itself, an excellent album). Sweven does a better job of being memorable and interesting throughout, as well as being just enough shorter to not overstay its welcome.

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tomcat_ha
Minister of Boiling Water

Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2006 8:05 am
Posts: 5570
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 6:01 pm 
 

I finally listened to this today and i have to say its one of the weirdest albums i heard.
After the debut and the EP. I mostly expected a very psychedelic death metal album and after the first track was available online i thought it would be different than the other tracks.
Instead they are all like this. I can't even really place the clean guitar elements. It's just very weird. Also i have to say it seems to be quite a bit better than the new Tribulation which while different was in the end not all that progressive.
Really looking forward to their euro tour this month together with necrowretch.

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IanThrash
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Dec 26, 2011 10:56 pm
Posts: 1000
Location: Argentina
PostPosted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 10:11 pm 
 

Someone on lastfm wrote that Morbus Chron "Out-tribulationed tribulation" and I kinda agree, they went even more progressive and weird. Both albums are masterpieces of modern death metal.
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metalMT
Metal newbie

Joined: Thu Dec 26, 2013 6:07 am
Posts: 60
PostPosted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 3:50 am 
 

I loved their demo and first album, but the new one is just too much of a departure from what they did previously, and doesn't work for me. Too much pissing about rather than playing actual good tunes.

People seem to be comparing them to Tribulation as far as a drastic change in style goes, which I can agree with, but at least Tribulation still actually sound great.

Change is a good thing...apart from when it sounds wank.

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~Guest 282118
Argentinian Asado Supremacy

Joined: Sat Dec 24, 2011 2:16 pm
Posts: 8300
PostPosted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 7:41 am 
 

metalMT wrote:
I loved their demo and first album, but the new one is just too much of a departure from what they did previously, and doesn't work for me. Too much pissing about rather than playing actual good tunes.

People seem to be comparing them to Tribulation as far as a drastic change in style goes, which I can agree with, but at least Tribulation still actually sound great.

Change is a good thing...apart from when it sounds wank.

I don't think that this new album sounds like wanking at all. I still haven't made up my mind about it, but what I can say for certain is that, while certainly intricate and strange, it doesn't feel self-indulgent at all. That is, unless you think all progressive music is self-indulgent by virtue of being progressive.

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shouvince
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Joined: Sat Jan 22, 2005 9:11 am
Posts: 3225
PostPosted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 7:46 am 
 

IanThrash wrote:
Someone on lastfm wrote that Morbus Chron "Out-tribulationed tribulation" and I kinda agree, they went even more progressive and weird. Both albums are masterpieces of modern death metal.


Uh oh. If that description is apt, then it's gonna be a dense listening session. I need to sample this a bit before I pick it up. Some of my friends are praising Morbus Chron quite a bit too.

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Abominatrix
Harbinger of Metal

Joined: Fri Oct 24, 2003 12:15 pm
Posts: 9311
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 1:34 pm 
 

I think there's a danger in the Tribulation comparison because it suggests that if you enjoy one band, you'll probably like the other, where I don't think that's necessarily true. If you approach Sweven expecting to have a similar experience to the FOrmulas of Death one, there's a good chance you'll be disappointed. Tribulation now wear their rock/heavy metal influences very plainly on their sleeve, resulting in many triumphant and even uplifting lead guitar parts. Morbus Chron are now an entirely tougher nut to crack, and there aren't any "whoa psychedelia!" or big guitar harmonies jumping out at you demanding your attention, but rather dense, unpredictable songwriting and pieces that travel linearly from one place to another. Sweven is also an album you have to sit through in its entirety in order to really grasp...although you can say this about any album not designed for "hit potential", you really need the full experience to grasp the band's real bag of tricks., starting from that slowly building and morphing intro to the almost new-wave sounding (at times) "Terminus" and really taking the time to digest everything in between. This is definitely not background listening!

For the record though, I do enjoy Formulas of Death as well, although I think I admire this album's sense of accomplishment more.
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ogmetal
Veteran of the Psychic Wars

Joined: Fri Jul 02, 2004 9:22 pm
Posts: 2877
PostPosted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 2:08 pm 
 

I got through three songs!

Weak guitar tone, no riffs, seemed very limp to me. No aggression...after all, this is death metal.
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IanThrash
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Dec 26, 2011 10:56 pm
Posts: 1000
Location: Argentina
PostPosted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 2:54 pm 
 

Abominatrix wrote:
I think there's a danger in the Tribulation comparison because it suggests that if you enjoy one band, you'll probably like the other, where I don't think that's necessarily true. If you approach Sweven expecting to have a similar experience to the FOrmulas of Death one, there's a good chance you'll be disappointed. Tribulation now wear their rock/heavy metal influences very plainly on their sleeve, resulting in many triumphant and even uplifting lead guitar parts. Morbus Chron are now an entirely tougher nut to crack, and there aren't any "whoa psychedelia!" or big guitar harmonies jumping out at you demanding your attention, but rather dense, unpredictable songwriting and pieces that travel linearly from one place to another. Sweven is also an album you have to sit through in its entirety in order to really grasp...although you can say this about any album not designed for "hit potential", you really need the full experience to grasp the band's real bag of tricks., starting from that slowly building and morphing intro to the almost new-wave sounding (at times) "Terminus" and really taking the time to digest everything in between. This is definitely not background listening!

For the record though, I do enjoy Formulas of Death as well, although I think I admire this album's sense of accomplishment more.



I get what you mean, Morbus Chron made a similar shift but in a considerably different direction. T.F.O.D was trippy and intrincate, but it also kept many of the qualities of their (vastly praised) first album: the riffing was always present and even in the weirder tracks, there was a sense of "standard" song-structure with cool verses and choruses among all the psychodelic passages.
Sweven goes a bit further with the experimentation, for starters, the guitar tone is extremely super clean for a death metal release, the melodies are writen in a dense and unorthodox way that flows linearly (as you accurately pointed) between each song .
Both albums are masterpieces to my ears. Original and clever songrwriting at its best. Morbus Chron may be a little harder to get into, but it pays off tremendously.
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joppek
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Joined: Sun Jan 09, 2011 7:36 am
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 5:01 pm 
 

ogmetal wrote:
No aggression...after all, this is death metal.


no need to force it into a box like that - i probably wouldn't even describe it as death metal
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Abominatrix
Harbinger of Metal

Joined: Fri Oct 24, 2003 12:15 pm
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Location: Canada
PostPosted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 5:07 pm 
 

It is what it is, whatever that is. :lol: Not everyone is going to enjoy it, obviously.

I'm quite a fan of the guitar tone myself.
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g_k
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Apr 19, 2008 1:35 pm
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Location: Washington
PostPosted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 6:47 pm 
 

really enjoyable album imo.
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andersbang
Metalhead

Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2009 9:28 am
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PostPosted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 8:33 pm 
 

Still am not sold on the vocals, I like my growls meaty and heavy. Musically they're much more interesting now a days than their first record, so will go check them out when they come to CPH in a few weeks time

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Jonpo
Hyperc6l6mb6wler

Joined: Tue Jul 31, 2007 10:05 am
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 1:29 am 
 

Fuck it, the hype got me on this one. Placing an order with CM right now. I can't wait to see if this thing lives up to my expectations. Dreamy death metal? I really want to hear that. You guys, Abominatrix specifically, also have me curious about Tribulation.
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lord_ghengis
Still Standing After 38 Beers... hic

Joined: Mon Dec 04, 2006 8:31 pm
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Location: Australia
PostPosted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 2:07 am 
 

Tribulation wasn't half as weird and as psychedelic as people made it out to be, it was basically just long and drawn out. I haven't heard it yet, but this one at least sounds like it's actually committing to that concept... I'm probably going to end up like og in regards to whether I think it's good or not.
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Jonpo
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 2:48 am 
 

Yeah let me go ahead and back down on that Tribulation proclamation. I had no IDEA their album was going to be so long. I just don't have the attention span. It would have to be an earth-shattering record for me to make it through.
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~Guest 178973
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 5:16 pm 
 

It's a very intriguing album, to be sure. Not...not entirely sure what to say about it. It's...not bad. It's special. The way the clean guitar became almost a main instrument was cool. The vocals were so reverberated they almost felt like black metal vocals - superficially, anyway - at times, until you paid closer attention to them. Man, I had so many questions and thoughts when I listened to it yesterday, but it was so dense I've forgot them. It requires, deserves and benefits from a bit of delving and introspection, that's for sure. I like it, I suppose.

Worth a listen, but no promise you'll like it, especially if you're not into weird stuff.

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tomcat_ha
Minister of Boiling Water

Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2006 8:05 am
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Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Fri Mar 07, 2014 8:55 pm 
 

The Tribulation album is mostly just epic death metal. As in death metal with long open songwriting. As for actual psychedelic death metal you better check out the last Skeleton of God.

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Jonpo
Hyperc6l6mb6wler

Joined: Tue Jul 31, 2007 10:05 am
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 10, 2014 9:45 pm 
 

On my first pass through Sweven now and I can't make heads or tails of it, other than to say I can tell it's going to be a grower. If they were going for the roiling, cast-about-in-violent-waters feel of a dream cycle then I'd say mission accomplished. I could see where it's going to dissappoint people who want actual death metal though. It doesn't sound like that...but I don't know what else you'd call it.
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