NewFriendAncientEnemy wrote:
Okay, so the point is that you are seperating the emotional response from the appreciation of the more technical side? You are being impartial, and not favoring your favorite, even though it has what it takes to be your favorite? Okaaaaay. Too bad the only plus to HTWTS is that it's more accessable, and newbie friendly.
I mean, seriously, I don't get it. Not only do they rip themselves off, write half the riffs, write half the quality, and fall short of the showmanship on GWC... They also mixed and produced the album in a poor manner just to (Words from their mouth) make the album sound "different." Now, I'll admit, alot of that is my opinion... But, we are talking two albums that could've been shuffled together. I respect both a great deal, just not equally. Here's how it would turn out. Listening to it for the first time, many people wouldn't have known which was which. You know how they woulda seperated the two? By finding the weaker production technique, and the shorter, radio friendly, more oft chorus raped song structures that made HTWTS less memorable, less epic, and totally non-earth-moving. That wasn't their game in the beginning... why now?
Are you saying you like HTWTS more, or are you just letting your pre-conceptions about what others consider good do the judging for you? Or maybe, you treat this as I treat Chainheart Machine and A Predator's Portrait. More likely... I mean, I can see why people LOVE Chainheart Machine, and it's a classic. Really is. In fact, it's almost criminal how little I actually listen to it, as opposed to the blessed APP. You know what I think is more criminal? That APP isn't considered a classic. It's so their best! Its style clashes violently with my tastes... and Chainheart Machine was MADE FOR ME! It's what I dig about Melodic Death Metal, but fuck all. It got fucking TROUNCED by the effort I would've never saw coming. I recommend it with stiff warning about having a hard shell.
I'd know what you were saying if you were being true to yourself, but this just sounds influenced.
Actually, it's probably a result of the fact that I have a tendency to overthink everything, not just music. I don't trust emotions to be a valid guide, so I fall back on logic and rational thought. The question ceases to be "why do I like this?" and becomes "why is this good, bad or mediocre?" Thus, I end up with split opinions on a lot of things. It tends to happen more in music than anything else, because despite eight years of formal training, I've always approached music with my emotions first, just because it's music, and that's what it does. If it doesn't evoke some sort of visceral response from the listener, there's not much point to it (even very mechanical music does that; a lack of emotion in the music itself doesn't preclude emotions in the listener).
When I analyze music, I tend to try to separate myself from my likes and dislikes, and look at melody, riffs, etc. This sometimes ends up splitting my opinion based on the different criteria. For example, with Vehemence, one of the reasons I like GWC so much is that I take a very large and entirely purile enjoyment out of "Christ, I Fucking Hate You!" It's a good song based on any criteria, but I fully admit that the reason I like it so much is that it's one of the most vile, foul and blasphemous pieces of music I've ever encountered. However, not everyone is a sick bastard with the sense of humor of an incredibly fucked-up fourteen-year-old like I am, so they probably wouldn't get quite as much enjoyment out of that song as I do.
Actually, since you've made it obvious which song is your fav, I'll just say that "She never noticed me" is the greatest thing I've ever heard. Then again, "The Last Fantasy of Christ" is the perfect lubricant to the perfect series of songs that close out the album as strongly as it began. Yeah, those are prolly my two most ultra favs. Have you looked into Vehemence's 1st album by any chance?
