Metal Reviews

some albums strike you the very first time you listen to it and then quickly grow tiresome. I don't think there's any album in that category I'm still listening to...

some albums just make something "tick" inside but are harder to get into... on the long run, I find these to be the one who will last when "fist strikers" end on a dusty shelve...

so here's my question : how's that for you... examples would be fine too.

as for mine, I loved Faith No More's The Real Thing the fist time I heard it and now I hardly listen to any song from it. on the contrary, Angel Dust (FNM too) was harder to get into and I still listen to it regularily...

agreed, I call your first category "slutty music" 8)

prog and extreme metal are both brands of challenging music whereas melodeath and gothic metal are not, and you can see where I've gravitated..

I will say that there are certain universally respected bands that somehow manage to release appealing music which has a lot going on under the surface - Radiohead, Mars Volta, Tool, Coheed and Cambria etc etc etc but for some reason you're both an elitist AND a sell-out if you listen to those, haha.

Nice timing with the thread there Stefan.

I think you should add a 3th option for I like both. It's hard for me to explain it properly, but when I'm in the mood for something really catchy like Sonata Arctica (and I will never be tired of listening Sonata) I listen to it. Other catchy albums are both Machine Men and those don't get boring at all. Sometimes I get more satisfaction from the catchy albums.
For those "hard to get into" albums I sometimes never manage to get into, while others really struck me after the 3rd or so spin. Example of such album is more recently is The Project Hate and probably the new Diablo, which I couldn't get into at first, but now songs like Damien and D.O.A are creeping up in my mind.

I'll say both, but leaning more towards hard to get. I like my music catchy too, but when the catchiness runs out it becomes repetitive, in most cases. A couple of examples of albums that are not repetitive and still catchy are Angra - Temple of Shadows and Blind Guardian - A Night at the Opera. Those two albums were (are) pretty technical, but catchy at the same time. So after my first listen I was in love with both of them, but as I continued to listen to them my love for each album grew. This is mainly b/c with each song you would hear something different in each song. Know what I mean? Anyway, Hard to get is my vote. Good poll btw.

Just to get more clear on the Diablo subject, Stefan. Mimic 47 is not as catchy as Eternium. It's from those hard to get into albums, but I'm sure I'll like it in the end. Now Eternium imo was extremely catchy yet we both think it's better than Mimic 47. Now how does that happen ?

Difficult. I can't give an either/or answer to this.

Second option.

Though, there are albums which I may like from the first listen, but I will love them only after 4-5 spins, e.g. the new Darkthrone. I suppose this also refers to the "hard to get" ones.

But mostly I prefer listening to extreme, psychodelic, paranoid, grotesque music over everything else.

I'm off listening to Cosmonauts Hail Satan's debut.

Hard to get.
I mean almost all tech-death, tech-metal is kind of hard to get into at the beginning but when you understand it you find something good about it every time you listen to it.

Oops, silly me, I thought you were talking about girls and voted love at first sight :x

Like I said in the In Flames thread I hate catchy music. It's a trick to attract more people,to give them something easily digestable that won't scare them away. You hear it once you've heard it all. There might be some hooks here and there though but the music shouldn't be easy.


All my favorite albums are the ones I didn't really get in the first listen (Transilvanian Hunger, Nattens Madrigal, Nattestid, Filosofem...)

It's also possible to like something at first listen, and to like it ever thereafter, as well as it's possible to never like it.

Exactly. I've been struggling with this for a while, truthfully no two albums hit me in the same way. It All Depends.

Oh how I love this site.
Anyway.

When I think back on all of my absolute favourite albums, almost every single one has been hard to get into.
Wintersun's self-titled album for example. I was so close of giving up after many listens. I recall that the review here on MR explained how splendid the first track, Beyond the dark sun was, but I never understood why. If it wasn't for the more melodic Death and Healing song, I might have just missed this masterpiece for ever. After I while I grew more and more into each song, while still not liking the first track.
But then, a while back, when my taste in metal had changed even more, I finally understood just how brilliant it really is. So for now, Wintersun is one of those untouchable and milestone records for me.

Other records that were hard to get into for me at the time I first heard them are Darkane’s Rusted Angel, Cradle of Filth’s Damnation and a Day, Nasum’s Shift and Helvete, Bloodbath’s Resurrection through carnage and many more.
However, not all albums that are hard to get into have become my favourites. The finest of them all, Still Life from Opeth, was love at first listening.
Oh my darling one, will I ever get tired of you…

How can you find cradle of filth hard to get into? It's so straight-forward...

still sucks though

Damnation was kinda hard. With all the theatrics and symphonic shit. I like that one though. Actually I like most of their albums and they were hard for me to like too. Not because they're "hard" in that sense, just that it's hard to get through Danny fag's fucking screaming. I do like his vocals now.

Yeah, you have a point Danny's vocals are kind of hard to get into. No doubt about that.

Well to start with Damnation and a day was one of the first metal albums I listened through. My reaction was mostly like: "What tha hell was that?" I didn't understand anything, the music was just a big blur with some variations. But after a while, I could finally appreciate it.
However, I have always liked Dani's vocals.

That's often true (what stefan said), but some of my favorite albums grabbed me right from the beginning. Arcturus mainly, La Masquerade and Sham Mirrors grabbed me from the start and are still brilliant.

Other favorites though took longer to grow on me, like Written in Waters and 666 International.

Shoot ! I thought it was regarding luv and voted hard to get before reading the post. :oops: