Metal Reviews

Mm, pretty much exactly the same here. I don't download and then buy if I like it. I can't afford to, and for me that would require a superhuman level of willpower... ie to pay for something I already have.

However I do my best to ensure that I keep buying CDs regularly.

Downloading has definitely exacerbated the problem for me of having too many records to listen to and appreciate fully. However it's not the cause, just a catalyst. When I was younger I would save for ages to buy one album, and then that album would be the most important thing in the world to me. Years before I aquired downloading technology, however, I had enough cash to buy a lot more albums. More than I could listen to in time. I still spent the same amount of time listening to music, (ie I have it on permanently unless I'm at a funeral or something lame) it's just that I listen to a vast breadth, and not many albums in much depth. I don't know how kids today are, really. However I'm pretty sure that those of us that really felt very strongly about appreciating music were always in a minority anyway, downloading or not.

That has very obvious disadvantages, but it also means I am always discovering and learning about new stuff as well, which is important for me.

Put it this was - in 2003 I could literally afford maybe 2 albums a month at the utmost. We used to know a really cool guy who owned a record shop (sadly shut down since) who would play like half an album if it helped us decide what to buy. One day I was agonising between the firts Falconer album and an Angel Dust album and eventually Falconer one on the toss of a coin (note: phew). If I had broadband then I would have just downloaded the Angel Dust album and probably ended up buying something of their's long before I actually did (roughly a year later).

At Kayla: Aaaah, I though you mean this dude was around our sort've age group. Now that would have been a scary/awesome collection.

Ha, tell me about it. People give me weird looks when I tell them I have something like 500 (a good deal are burned ones that people have given me, though).

you guys have loads of cds! i've been collecting for 6 years and only have about 200. On my PC i got 1276 songs, unless i've d/led them for free of the bands site i've paid for every song, or i've bought the actual cd after listening.

Edit: actually the songs i've been sent through messenger or you send it i haven't paided for......naughty me.

I agree here too.... actually.

Amazing that someone had to get insulting. I have no notions of being a superior music fan, but it is a fact that people are spoiled these days. You just refuse to look at the bigger picture. This is not about you.

Mr. Barton from Suspyre posts here, ask him what his thoughts are on The Silvery Image being all over Kerrazy Torrents? I'm sure the band are grateful that their music is getting out there. Sharing music online is just the new way they traded tapes in the 80s, CDRs in the 90s, but those ways were limited. P2P is not. These bands like Suspyre are getting screwed because they finance everything themselves, they don't have a label backing them and putting forth this money! Moreover, the bands that do manage to get record deals, like Cellador, get screwed because 2 million people may have their albums, but if 1 million, 900 thousand downloaded it then what does that do for the band? It generally gives them one more shot with a sophomore album, if they're lucky, then they're usually dropped. Because it's all about sales for a label, not how many people own the album, whether free or not. If it doesn't sell, the band loses in the end, and then the fan loses just as well.

Then those bands that manage to keep doing records often do so at the expense of their art, conforming to a more radio-friendly, corporate-forced style that will sell better. Downloaders are the biggest problem in the music industry today. Just because some still buy albums, most do not. Like I said, most of my friends that listen to music just download, nothing more. I have a friend with almost 100,000 MP3s on his PC. Even those, like yourself, that buys albums, you still have a lot that you've downloaded, right? You don't think that affects the band? Maybe not just you having downloaded it, but how many others are like you out there? The bigger picture encompasses more than just yourself.

Music has no mystery anymore. You shouldn't be able to just take anything you want because when you can do that, you care about it far less than you should. I love music, but if I download and album I am far less inclined to buy the album on its release day. I do buy it, but I don't wake up that excited about it. I didn't buy Synchestra until 6 months after it was released! Why? Because I had downloaded it and listened to it so many times that I just started to care less. It's not about how many albums you will own in 15 years, I'm sure some of you will own as many as I own, it's about right now, this moment.

This is about how many people are out there that will never own that many CDs, but will have 9,537 downloaded on their PC. Those people don't care about music and those people are the majority. If you love music you should despise those people because they're destroying what you love. Us older fans have something to compare this era to, some of you don't. We're not hating on you, we're telling you that this sort of thing is killing music because we've seen it change drastically and not for the greater good of music.

I get the feeling this might be in you editorial. I do somewhat agree with you ken but i don't see what moaning ( no offence )about it will accomplish. I think record companies should take steps against it. Like releasing albums sooner, so leaked albums don't have such a big impact. Also i'm sure that more could be done to prevent albums being leaked at all. I mean the new guardian for example, i've heard it a lot now and i'm goning to buy it when it comes out because thats what i do, but the sad thing is i don't care about it any more. I know that a lot of people who have heard it will not buy it beacuse of this very reason. If the CD came out a lot sooner after it was leaked my intrest would still be very high and i would care about going to buy. And if it never leaked at all, i would be very happy!!! I'd get it the day it came out. If record companies started putting a lot more effort into preventing this i think that would be a step in the right direction.

Ken, whether or not you realise it, you are the one who is getting insulting. Can you not see how utterly self-fellating statements like this seem? Don't fucking tell me I don't love what I listen to because I didn't neccesarily pay for all of it.

I don't care if you're refering to me directly. Statements like this are just a variation on the old "kids of today..." line.

Of course I realise people who strictly download are harming bands. The fact that the amount I buy has increased since I began downloading shows that it isn't always the case.

So, fine, rag on people who don't buy music all you want. Just stop breaking out your blankets statements like "you kids are spolied and don't appreciate the music."

Oh yeah, here we go again with the Ken started it nonsense after someone blatantly insulted me first! My comments are not insulting, my comments are accurate and factual and they're not directed specifically at you. I am saying nothing different than what Ben said. There are no blanket statements here that have no basis in fact, you are one person out of millions, if you somehow step out of the norm it doesn't mean anything. You're the minority (like I said, like you ignored).

And you are spoiled. If you want an album do you have to work for it in order to hear it? No. You just go to Kerrazy Torrents and download it. You may buy it in the end, but "spoiled" means to be treated with excessive indulgence. P2P has spoiled you, it has spoiled us all.

I think downloading is a good thing for music because it let me hear a lot of bands I wouldn't have heard otherwise, since before I could download I just listened to Tool, Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead non-stop. I'm not so sure about the whole "killing music" type thing, but I do know that I vastly prefer music that has come out in the last 6 or so years to music that came out before that. So as long as good music is being produced, and I'm getting to hear it, I'm happy.

So where is the Cellador review?

Huh? Fuck Cellador. They're too mainstream now. Seriously, I expected it to be reviewed already. I'd do it, but I have four priority (been sent the promo) reviews due in the next few weeks, plus a couple non-priority reviews I'd like to do for you guys. So, I wouldn't able to do it for like 2 months.

I just felt like being random. I liked the editorial though. Mainly b/c I love Journey... ... uhhh... and other stuff.

nice editorial man!

my favourite music is metal but i'd be an idiot if i dismissed so many excellent bands in other genres.

Journey are great. Embrace your faggiNESS.

I think everyone goes through phases were they only listen to one genre of music. Shit, for me, probably between 12 and 14, I only listened to Def Leppard! Every other band could suck it for all I cared. Obviously I was very, very young then and can't be expected to be so open-minded, but even later when I opened up to more bands I was still fairly close-minded. When I first heard Sarah McLachlan and Dead Can Dance at a music store where I worked is when things changed.

I was about 17 or 18 years old and at this music store the corporate office would send playlist tapes every month. It had some guy narrating through the tape talking about bands and upcoming albums, and it would play songs, too. Some songs to this day I despise because I heard them so many times! Anyway, when Dead Can Dance's Toward The Within came out, or was coming out, this tape we had played "I Am Stretched On Your Grave" and "Rakim," two insanely badass tunes. As soon as I heard them my ears perked up, which was odd for me. I ended up buying the album and loved it! Dead Can Dance is now one of my favorite bands.

Then one day passing the iMachine (a machine that allowed you to listen to snippets of songs on CDs if you scanned that CD) and it was playing a video by Sarah Mclachlan. (It played videos when no one was using it.) This is the video I saw: POSSESSION. I only stopped and paid attention because I was thinking, "Hey, this chick is hot!" But when I put on the headphones I was pretty shocked because I actually really liked the song. That song sort of opened the door for me. This song was way outside of the realm in which I was used to.

Eventually something will change you, whether it's age, circumstance, curiosity, or what have you. Most people change with time and their tastes do as well. Some can't admit it, though. I've caught my friends listening to some shit that I would never have expected them to listen (Ashlee Simpson ) and they try and deny it!

@ the Cellador example:

Most metalheads still buy next to downloading, as is also showing in the reactions in this thread. Where would the ones be that downloaded Cellador, had they not had that possibility? Now the logical assumption is that they have bought it instead, but that is an erroneous one. This average "kid" would most likely not have known Cellador, for he would be stuck with the latest Metallica or Limp Bizkit! That's why Metallica makes suck a big point about downloading, it does not only keep people from buying their records, it also makes people lose their interest in their records when they find out there is so much more. For the underground, downloading is not so bad of a movement, the income of a band relies mostly on touring, as we know, and people knowing the bands that play are more likely to visit the concert, ay? For the mainstream, downloading is a deathstab, but those people can swim in their money already.

@ Ken

Dead Can Dance huh? Looks like we finally have a band in common! I'll henceforthly refer to them as Dead Ken Dance.

i download for mainly 2 reasons:

1: to get to k ow a band someone told me about
2: because i really want to have the music but can't buy it around here

I still buy whatvere cd's i can find that are good, but there's so much i can't find, and anyway, i try to go to concerts of my fave bands and to buy t-shirts. so i do support them.

There is something very scabrous about someone that exclusively downloads for free, and that's why- as I've said many times before- I always feel a moral obligation to keep buying CDs on a fairly regular basis.

But meh, the record industry has brought this onto itself, in some ways. It's not infrequent to go into any record shop and find any given newly released album for £16-17. When you think about how much that CD must have cost to produce... That's half a days wages for some people, in exchange for something that took 10p for raw materials and 2 seconds on a production line to create.

I'd like to see this whole business herald a revolution in the way music reaches its public. ie, the internet can bring musicians much closer to their audience without so many middlemen, without so many overheads. A large part of the problem is that anyone that downloads doesn't feel like they are ripping the artist off, because they believe that the amount of money the band will receive from a CD sale is minute. I know Ken will say that it all adds up, and that it severely harms their chances of getting an advance on a second album. That's very true. But I'm talking about the perception of exclusive downloaders, not the reality of the situation.

Now, if in the future legal downloads straight from the website of the band became the most widely used way of buying music, that perception would shift and most of the people that justify downloading in their own consciences would be unable to do so. Those that do it because they don't want to spend extortionate prices for CDs would benefit because the band can sell their product much more cheaply direct than in stores. Plus, the band ensures that anyone that wants their stuff has to go to the site, and subsequently they get a guaranteed interested audience for advertising.

Plus it's environmentally friendly as well!

I realise that if that kind of thing ever took off it would practically shut down an entire industry and put thousands of people out of work, but I'm going on the premise that this is what should happen if downloading was so widespread that the collapse of the record industry would be inevitable anyway.

Have some faith in youth Ken

Im only 18 and i started downloading a few months ago, but then i realised it was useless cos i didnt appreciate the music because i could get it like *that* *snaps fingers*.

Some people do still love music, and not everyones spoiled. The core kiddies and metalcore teens maybe. It does kinda piss me off when someone goes "This song only has 20 time changes, i need at least 60 in a song to maintain my interest"