Rolling Metal Thread 2010

WHY DO PEOPLE EMPLOY THIS GUY?

Presumably because he has the balls to make a call without worrying what the fanboys will think?

Oh, on the contrary; I think he's obsessed with what "fanboys" think. Otherwise he'd just state his own opinion without feeling the need to bolster it by caricaturing others who disagree.

haha Please everyone welcome my good friend Piotr (aka Helmut Was A Krautrocker). He did post a few times years ago under that name but clearly he's bored with DFFD and has come back!

Hey, speaking of which, I'm not registered on DFFD but I think some of the folks there would be interested in reading about Orthodox in Burning Ambulance. Can someone who's a regular poster there email me with the goal of starting a discussion of the mag over there? I'll provide all relevant links to include, etc.

ahoy hoy, piotr.

so, I listened to the new HOF yesterday and really wasn't feeling it at all. I actually liked how prominent the bass and drums were in the mix but the songs weren't really doing it for me. not much stuck.

vox were probably too high in the mix, yeah.

have to listen again.

and I want to hear that new cathedral album real bad. supremely jealous of you guys.

Now then Piotr,

I've got to say that constantly harping on in reviews about how everyone bar you has got it wrong (even if you're right) is deeply unpleasant. The odd occasion I've caught myself doing it I've been thoroughly ashamed. You just can't confidently state why a group of people, maybe numbering in the tens of thousands love a record for the wrong reasons.

It amazes me that so many people like Saxon. I don't think they're doing it because of peer pressure though. And (despite my gut feeling to the contrary) I know people actually genuinely love stuff like Girls and Wavves and Andrew WK and Manowar. It's not my job to state that they don't unless I've got some kind of proof.

Plus going on about how great your taste is and how everyone else bar you and your mates are wrong is the review equivalent of going "LOL@USERNAME^" - nothing outrageous about it. It's just, well, uncouth and ever so slightly lame.

I'm pretty sure Piotr disliked Mr Voegtlin on the old SL board even though he doesn't like Mastodon,Torche etc.

Sorry that was a Hello Piotr.

And then me ranting in general. Too much coffee. Back to work.

Oh hi!

I went and read some more Voegtlin, and Doran, you are correct... dude's a bit caustic in a sneering, everyone-but-me-is-wrong kind of way. I guess I just got sick of hearing how the new HoF is awesome and it was refreshing to see someone not feeling it like I don't feel it.

Who was this dude on the old SL board?

Everyone loves it? Everything I've read (bar here) has been how shitty the production is.

I forget his username, but he got pissed off because people liked Baroness,Mastodon and Torche and he thought it was fake metal and how people shouldn't listen to fake metal and how everyone who liked them were hipsters and republicans. And he just ranted constantly all the time about them (he still does in his reviews as covered in previous rolling metal threads here).
He was no warpig.

^^^sounds like a true blue Chuck Eddy fan to me. ;)

I went and read some more Voegtlin, and Doran, you are correct... dude's a bit caustic in a sneering, everyone-but-me-is-wrong kind of way. I guess I just got sick of hearing how the new HoF is awesome and it was refreshing to see someone not feeling it like I don't feel it.

I don't mind him not liking the album, I'm all for critical discourse. The problem with that review, is that it reads like he's railing against the same things he's always disliked about the band (the drumming, Pike's singing). There is really very little to tell me why THIS particular album isn't good. He's just bitching about a band he already hated, which doesn't strike me as good criticism when reviewing an album.

That's all he does. But funny that on the OK, is this the worst piece of music writing ever? people actually liked his writing. I hate flowery reviews, but typical of ilx to stand up for it.

his writing ain't so bad usually, and even occasionally fun to read; it's his "IDEAS" that suck!!!!!!

I also kinda hate critics that throw themselves into the "true metal" pissing match. That's one that no one is ever going to win, so why bother?

"but typical of ilx to stand up for it."

it's not horribly written and its fairly distinctive! he's one up on 90% of everyone else who writes music reviews right there.

Xiu Xiu. It's been driving me mental all day trying to remember which band it is.

I cannot for the life of me imagine anyone ever actually extracting any pleasure whatsoever from listening to Xiu Xiu. If you extraordinarily renditioned me to Mordor and then waterboarded me with Phil Anselmo's septic arse broth for 24 hours solid I would still not be able to convincingly tell you that I believed that anyone sane got anything other than deep displeasure from listening to this bunch of twits.

But logic (and the trace remnants of human decency) tells me otherwise. It's not for me to say how people consume and enjoy music.

I think I once fell into the massive wanker pit of describing someone (probably coldplay) as music for people who hate music but I hope I've become a less shit writer since then because there's just no such thing. If you read the way Douglas Adams writes about Dire Straits you can tell he had a very deep, almost profound, love for that band. You just can't infer anything about a person (in this sense at least) - especially not their love for music - by what music they listen to.

I kind of feel sorry for this clown, wanking himself to sleep every night over his original Tank vinyl.

Nigel and proud. That's me.

Of course none of this applies to people who like Sting or The Police.

They're just cretins.

that Xiu Xiu paragraph is quality writing I can get behind!

Jeff Gilbert of Guitar World was the best reviewer ever.

like his review of Grave's Extremely Rotten Live: "Yes, it is."

wait that stewart dude wrote that about xiu xiu or what did i miss?

nah

if he did he will have wittered on about how mastodon and torche fans are republican voting hipster scum who read vice.

ok whoa guys this high on fire is fucking amazing

i might give it the nod over blessed black wings also o_O

no complaints over the vocals too high in mix?

have only had a chance to listen to it in the car so far, so i reserve my vote on that until i listen to it on an actual stereo. didnt notice it yet tho

"but typical of ilx to stand up for it."

ilx" saying "what exactly is your criticism of this?" doesn't seem all that hive-mind to me dude, given that your sole criticism seemed to be "I hate him and so do ppl on metal boards, so that settles it"

no complaints over the vocals too high in mix?

I love it. Can't get enough of that gurgly voice.

Nope, still hate High on Fire. And haven't heard Cathedral yet (but happy to know there are still "insiders" who have some privileges). And am deliberately waiting on Tryptik Frost until I can hear the whole thing.

But in the meantime:

- Eluveitie+Acoustic is good, but Eluveitie+Metal is magnificent.
- HIM+Acoustic is good, but HIM+Metal would be my #1 if I had to pick one today. Anti-Nihilist Metal.
- Watching my 2yo daughter bopping to Immolation while eating a bowl of Peanut Butter Pows is a great way to start a morning.
- The Rotting Christ album is so good that the Diamanda Galas collaboration at the end is an anticlimax.
- Dark: Dark Fortress vs Dark Tranquillity; Dark Fortress in a walkover.
- Ov: Ov Hell vs Overkill; Ov Hell, but it's closer.
- Juliana Hatfield: Best album since-- oh, wait, wrong thread.

That Eluveitie album isn't doing anything for me at all. Maybe it needs more spins, but it sure hasn't grabbed me like their past stuff.

xpost

wazzap with the dig at dire straits? "sultans of swing" is one of the best tracks of all time!!

ilx" saying "what exactly is your criticism of this?" doesn't seem all that hive-mind to me dude, given that your sole criticism seemed to be "I hate him and so do ppl on metal boards, so that settles it"

pfunk's vitriol towards some random writer dude IS a little o_O but in his defense, I took that comment more like "lots of people on ilx are music journos, so they may be more into flowery music reviews than most"

i haven't seen any evidence that ilm likes any kind of critical writing more than any other

haha now that I think of it, ilm probably hates flowery music reviews more than most!

but that's just how I read the comment.

off-topic but this is immediately what I thought of when I saw "worst piece of music writing ever":

http://www.autostraddle.com/why-taylor-swift-offends-little-monsters-feminists-and-weirdos-31525

Listen up; if I ever get my life together enough to reproduce other life forms, they will not be joining Taylor Nation – they will be brave, creative, inventive, envelope-pushing little monsters who will find a pretty, skinny white blonde girl in a white peasant shirt strolling through nature-themed screensaver-esque fantasylands singing about how “when you’re fifteen and somebody tells you they love you, you’re gonna believe them” not only sappy, but also insulting to their inevitable brilliance.

I'm sorry. carry on.

yeah that thing was awful

and i think she had a valid point or two but the whole time i was just like "i would hate you if i met you"

but also insulting to their inevitable brilliance.

Seriously, fuck you. I hope your theoretical daughters grow up to be dumb sluts.

I'm really biased and pro-swift/anti-gaga anyway but I just felt like the one or two valid points in there are just absolutely buried under the many, many desperate leaps she's taking to prop up gaga.

x-post

it's an awful, terrible, nonsensical false dichotomy that would only be raised by someone who essentially doesn't understand pop music

totally.

plus, I just hate this clever but not really "bloggy" type of writing that just comes across as someone completely in love with the sound of their own voice blabbing on and on.

and I ESPECIALLY hate people that write this way in office emails, let me tell you what!

not slandering all blogs btw. just ones that are written like... that.

lol i work with software engineers and can barely get a complete sentence out of 'em which is annoying, but yeah emails in the self-regarding blog voice would be much worse

lolz I am familiar with that as well

I'm gonna watch some homicide episodes and pass out. sorry about bringing swift vs. gaga into this metal dudes