Recent content by MrKnickerbocker

I enjoyed the new album on my first listen and I agree it falls off quite a bit in the second half (except for Umbra). Overall, it’s fun. I think I like it more on the first listen than the last album, but I don’t think it has the same caliber of standout tracks. I continue to be impressed...

What a boring, derivative slab of nothing.

THE ATLANTIC Well, folks, they did. They finally did it. They made the newer musical direction make sense while also pushing themselves. I'm completely onboard for the seafaring metaphors throughout. In case you can't tell, this being Evergrey and all, the ocean is made of sorrow. The tide...

It seems like he's trying to gain favor from Maiden fans who refuse to accept new members, comparing him to a previous part of the band's history that this tour "coincidentally" is celebrating. Maybe he does have more of a Clive feel to him, but it just seems a bit weird (especially after...

I find the comparison to Clive interesting and odd.

https://blabbermouth.net/news/bruce-dickinson-says-he-was-pleasantly-shocked-by-iron-maidens-first-rehearsal-with-new-drummer-simon-dawson Relevant stuff for Simon:

https://blabbermouth.net/news/bruce-dickinson-says-he-was-pleasantly-shocked-by-iron-maidens-first-rehearsal-with-new-drummer-simon-dawson Some interesting tidbits in here about Simon and the setlist.

This is actually what I miss the most. This is a pretty fair comparison that I hadn't really thought of before, though they achieved the inverse: Tom Waits became a Halloween carnival whereas Opeth left the spooky rides behind to become some jazzbo songsters.

I'm not saying the jazz wasn't always there, but so was the folkiness. Perhaps, if we're being extremely pedantic, as is our wont as Opethians, we could use the word "acoustic". The predominant contrasting sound to the loud/distorted/metallic sections of Opeth up until Ghost Reveries was...

Rightfully so.

It still hasn’t clicked with me. I like parts. I like the growls. I like the heavier guitars. But there’s just a massive change that happened around Watershed where the primary contrasting genre changed from folk to jazz. Opeth are always a metal (or rock) band at heart, but it was the folky...

100% agreed here. These guys could be as big as Metallica if they had a more creative manager in touch with the changing popular music landscape. Those late 80s albums, as great as they are, would have been the time for them to go in even further on synths and really work towards a hit (Wasted...

A-Z is a good project, I’m excited to hear more. Ray Alder has always had weird phrasing. It’s one of the main things that kept me from loving Fates Warning. He has an absolutely amazing voice and his tone is perfect, but his writing is sometimes awkward or lifeless. Kinda like Tom Englund in...

Neil Peart was one of a kind: technically masterful, bursting with creativity and intelligence, and also more tasteful than anyone with his level of talent had any right to be.

Ask and ye shall receive! And yes, the correct answer was: THE STORM WITHIN We're once again repeating the same exact pattern from the previous few albums, but thankfully, the songwriting is getting tighter! There's a couple great songs here and overall the quality and consistency is much...