Discuss and Rate the Last Album You've Listened To

Martintox

Mister Disorder
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As the title indicates.

I'll start: I've listened to this album of Buddhist throat chanting lately, and it's pretty good. It sounds ominous at first, but it's actually quite relaxing once you get into it. A nice background listen. 7/10.

 
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Sneed's SeednFeed

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Phantom Rhythm - Gong Gong Gong工工工
Slaps harder than the bourgeois state slaps the working class daily 8/10
 

Smithnikov

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Pink Floyd: Relics

I'm one of those folks that prefer the Syd Barrett Floyd over Roger Waters. Don't get me wrong, Waters Floyd deserves all the praise it gets, but I just like their experimental "Is Syd thinking in complete sentences today?" tracks a bit more. Relics is a terrific gateway drug to that era, but it has one glaring problem IMO. Their version of Careful With That Axe Eugene, my alltime favorite Floyd tune, is the inferior version, not the one on UmmaGumma.

9/10 if you're interested in Barrett Floyd, but likely 4/10 if you're more familiar with or perfer Waters Floyd.
 

Martintox

Mister Disorder
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I listened to Smashing Pumpkins' Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness again after a long long time, and it's a lot better than I remember. It's crazy that a 2-hour album can stay so consistently interesting. It's a bit like the Beatles' White Album; you could remove a bunch of material and make it more concise, but the scale and the massive diversity play an integral part in the appeal. 8/10.


Pink Floyd: Relics

I'm one of those folks that prefer the Syd Barrett Floyd over Roger Waters. Don't get me wrong, Waters Floyd deserves all the praise it gets, but I just like their experimental "Is Syd thinking in complete sentences today?" tracks a bit more. Relics is a terrific gateway drug to that era, but it has one glaring problem IMO. Their version of Careful With That Axe Eugene, my alltime favorite Floyd tune, is the inferior version, not the one on UmmaGumma.

9/10 if you're interested in Barrett Floyd, but likely 4/10 if you're more familiar with or perfer Waters Floyd.
Relics honestly doesn't have that much from the Barrett era proper (I'd argue that his presence had already vastly diminished by A Saucerful of Secrets), but that just goes to show the world of difference between Waters-era Floyd at the start of the 70s and at the end of the same decade. If anything, given all the cosmic prog experimentation, they actually got wilder for a bit after Barrett left. A really fascinating period in the band's history.
 
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Smithnikov

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Relics honestly doesn't have that much from the Barrett era proper (I'd argue that his presence had already vastly diminished by A Saucerful of Secrets), but that just goes to show the world of difference between Waters-era Floyd at the start of the 70s and at the end of the same decade. If anything, given all the cosmic prog experimentation, they actually got wilder for a bit after Barrett left. A really fascinating period in the band's history.
Quite true, thank you. I'm a tad embarrassed to go on about Syd when it was Gilmour/Waters responsible for Careful With that Axe. I still say it's a good appetizer for Syd's style, though, with Bike and See Emily Play.
 
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Sneed's SeednFeed

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Not listening to this album per se but it has to be said that Raw Power is superior to the entire NATO armed forces
 

SilentPony

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Corner of No and Where
I just re-listened to Meatloaf's Bat out of Hell II, one of the rare direct sequel albums better than the original, at least in whole. Bat out of Hell is neigh unstoppable, but Paradise by the Dashboard lights?
Now Do Anything for Love is a more mawkish song, but I'd say its more complete. Tells a more satisfying story.
And Everything louder than Everything else is the perfect day-driving song.
Rock and Roll dreams come through, Life is a lemon and I won't my money back. Oddly appropriate for these days.

10/10 You're a fool for not listening to it RIGHT NOW! Come on guys get your head in the game!
 
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thebobmaster

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I don't listen to many albums, so this one is a bit outdated. It is, however, a great album.

Slipknot's We Are Not Your Kind. I've always been a casual fan of Slipknot, but this is the only full album of theirs I've given a shot. I do not regret it at all. The interludes by themselves are some of the best interludes I've heard on an album, doing a good job of linking songs together, and every song on the album hits the mood that it is clearly aiming for. I legitimately can't think of a single track on the album that is not good, with "Solway Firth" and "Unsainted" being particular gems on the album. If you are even a slight fan of Slipknot, or their style of music, I would recommend this album without hesitation.
 

Martintox

Mister Disorder
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I've recently finished going through Neon Genesis Evangelion S² Works, basically a massive box set of all the music used in the original NGE show as well as the two movies that came shortly afterwards. It's not exactly meant to be a listening experience, given the length and the loads of alternate versions of the same compositions, but there is a lot of interesting material. I particularly loved hearing the alternate takes of songs off The End of Evangelion. The best find was this unreleased track, which was one of their options for background music for the Third Impact sequence:


I'd only give it a 7/10 as the sum of all of Shiro Sagisu's material from that era, as I don't like the music of the show remotely as much as that of EoE, but it's a nice collection to have all the same.

I don't listen to many albums, so this one is a bit outdated. It is, however, a great album.

Slipknot's We Are Not Your Kind. I've always been a casual fan of Slipknot, but this is the only full album of theirs I've given a shot. I do not regret it at all. The interludes by themselves are some of the best interludes I've heard on an album, doing a good job of linking songs together, and every song on the album hits the mood that it is clearly aiming for. I legitimately can't think of a single track on the album that is not good, with "Solway Firth" and "Unsainted" being particular gems on the album. If you are even a slight fan of Slipknot, or their style of music, I would recommend this album without hesitation.
We Are Not Your Kind is pretty solid, but I prefer Iowa, one of their earlier albums. It's rather impressive that a record that enters death metal levels of musical intensity on multiple occasions managed to go Platinum in the US.
 
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Master Of Puppets

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I was listening to Rust in Peace this morning.


It's a well known genre classic that has lots of fantastic guitar playing in it, and a polarising singer.
 

Neuromancer

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The Conan the Barbarian original soundtrack by Basil Poledouris.

What can be said? It's one of the best movie soundtracks of all time, and a grand example of how an amazing score can elevate a film and even set up its mood. Riddle of Steel / Riders of Doom turns the opening scene of the slaughter of Conan's family from a scene of mere brutality into a scene out of an epic tragedy, setting the mood and setting up Conan to be not just some vengeance seeker, but a man of mythic destiny. The score continues to accompany the movie and oftentimes takes central stage, something unfortunately uncommon nowadays, for good use of the score helps enhance scenes. The Orgy for example has a dreamy and soothing melody, greatly enhancing the scenes of debauchery we see in Doom's temple, while also giving the impression that all the people partaking are in a trance, enthralled by the Sorcerer's dominating magicks. Battle at the Mounds echoes Riddle of Steel's melody and brings everything full circle, completing Conan's journey from a helpless child and slave to a self-made man that carves out his own destiny.

Overall, it is an absolutely amazing soundtrack, holding greatly on its own musical prowess while also turning the movie it's from into a tale for the ages. 9/10
 

EscapeGoat

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No Sacrifice, No Victory - HammerFall

The latest album I gave a spin of for my Spotify megaplaylist of stuff I like. I remember loving the single "Any Means Necessary" after hearing it as a teenager, so that was a pleasant blast of nostalgia but unfortunately the rest of the record is super-tepid power metal. It doesn't really have much power or drive to any of the songs, and it says a lot when the only other really decent track was the instrumental, "Something for the Ages".
 

Neurotic Void Melody

Bound to escape
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Puscifer - C is for (please insert sophomoric genetailia reference here)

Is alright, fine...more puscifer. Well, part remixes from V is for Vagina album, but they do love their remixes. Useful listening for if you not sure if suicidal or horny.

Money Shot - Puscifer

Getting a distinct impression this may well have been the product of a recently passed (at the time) mescaline experience.
 
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Martintox

Mister Disorder
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Motoi Sakuraba's soundtrack for Dark Souls.


I actually got into the guy with Baten Kaitos and Tales of Symphonia, for both of which he has provided a boatload of splendid material. I'd say he is a bit of an acquired taste when taken on his own, because the similarities in his compositions show once you listen to multiple in a row (the general bombast of his songs, the prog undertones, the use of keyboards as a leading instrument in more energetic tracks, etc). That issue lingers a bit in the Dark Souls OST, but he generally does an excellent job. There's no synths, yet he works that orchestra like a champ, and there's a lot of variety in the boss themes ("Bed of Chaos", "Dark Sun Gwyndolyn" and "Ornstein & Smough" don't have much to do with one another, for example). Most importantly, he knows not to overdo things: many of the slower themes ("Firelink Shrine" and "Gwyn, Lord of Cinder") are among the best cuts on there. The restraint in the compositions is something that I find very missed in the later Souls games, especially Dark Souls III. 8/10.
 

EscapeGoat

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I've been working through some of this year's releases. Last thing I spun was Lorna Shore's Immortal. I really am not usually one for deathcore but I gave it a go regardless, and I have to say I'm really glad I did. There's a really clear set of melodeath and symphonic influences in the songwriting that it immediately appealed to me. It's massively brutal and hits like a truck, but then balanced out with these lovely harmonies. The typical deathcore breakdowns happen but they almost feel like an afterthought at times. Really impressed, and one of this year's better releases in metal that I've heard currently.
 

Sneed's SeednFeed

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White Light/White Heat makes me want to stab a simp through a cardboard box whilst getting high in a pansexual orgy/10
 
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Kae

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The last album I listened to in full was about a week ago and it was Jesus Christ Superstar, which I won't deny I absolutely adore that album, I think the way it characterises Judas as basically a really kind if a bit misguided man that truly cares about Jesus but still betrays him for what he thinks is protecting the Jewish people is absolutely beautiful, I also really like the question that it raises about God, since it is implied Judas did what he did because God wanted him to and therefore doomed what was very clearly a good man, besides Murray Head's performance is absolutely fantastic, not only as good singing but also as extremely good emotive acting.
Besides Judas I think both Jesus's doubts & sheer commanding prescience are fantastically conveyed by Ian Gillian's performance not to mention that I love what they did with Pilate, I think that making him a man that truly cares about his job and ideals of Justice and is therefore conflicted about punishing with death what to him is just a madman makes for very interesting drama, I really like how he argues with the crowd to try to convince them not to kill Jesus to the point that the whipping becomes an act of kindness as an exercise in trying to dissuade the crowd from continuing to request crucifixion, I think it's a very interesting way to interpret the story.

There are many other things I could mention, but to be honest I'm not here to review the album, especially considering that I'm very musically ignorant, but I at least can say that it's very much worth listening, I won't deny this isn't the first time I listened to the album which I've loved for a very long time and'st is one of my favourite albums of all time so I'm very biased, it's worth adding that the fact that it's pure blasphemy is part of the appeal so if you're very religious it might rub the wrong way as it very deliberately makes many changes to the source material since it was necessary in order to make a compelling rock-opera.

Finally I just want to add that while I'm aware there's a Play, despite being created by Tim Rice & Andrew Lloyd Webber it was originally intended to just be an album & I personally haven't enjoyed neither the plays nor the movie, so I'd recommend avoiding all that & just listening to the 1970 album as I feel that's the best version.
 

Silvanus

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Last album I listened to in full was Jackson Browne's self-titled first album (1972, sometimes called 'Saturate Before Using' for the odd tagline at the top).

Absolutely fantastic stuff, especially for a first studio album. Stripped-back, acoustic rock. Standout is "Song for Adam" (below). 8/10 or thereabouts.

 

Kae

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So I was in the mood for more Rock-Operas after listening to Jesus Christ Superstar again & continuing to think it's fantastic, so I went back & listened to an album I used to really like when I was a kid called Avantasia: The Metal Opera, aaaand it's not as good as I remember, I don't know if it is that I'm not as into heavy metal but yeah, I didn't dig it, it wasn't awful or anything and the songs I remember really liking as a kid I still liked, but the story isn't particuarly well told or anything and I find it really hard to actually pay attention to what's happening, in comparison with Jesus Christ Superstar when I can give opinions about individual characters, their arcs, their performances & how that alters the bible story for the better, here I remember that Vandroy dies & that he was the one that was performed by Michael Kiske & I that he was a priest & definitely the protagonists friend (I don't remember the name of the main character), but anyway it doesn't really work as a Rock Opera or Metal Opera in my opinion.


& Part 2