Recent content by Oca

Thanks for a thorough and energetic first impression! I find it interesting that you rate Senjutsu as the No 4 album and I find that it shares most of its DNA with the albums you’ve rated as the worst in the catalog, but it might be we are hearing different things and have different vantage...

Speaking of similarities, hasn’t that always been the case? Intro to LOTLDR and melody line in FoTD for example. I’m sure we can come up with many, many more, but I find that some of the melodies and themes on Senjutsu is a bit too obvious (Time Machine and Book of Souls being one of the most...

Yeah, Spotify is (currently) 320 quality at best so it’s a lossy format and the dynamics are limited compared to CD or lossless. I have both so I can compare back to back. Don’t have a vinyl player yet due to small kids, but it’s on the investment plan for the future :)

Turn of volume normalization on Spotify and you get some sense of the dynamics. I play through Tidal and that’s FLAC 24/192 or MQA and the difference is like night and day compared to Spotify (not to mention YouTube that sucks the life out of everything).

I found that it sounds much better on headphones than through regular speakers or a car stereo if we’re talking normal systems (not the hifi and high-end minority)Might be a conscious choice since probably 90% of people listen through headphones/plugs nowadays. Still, the production really steps...

Still doesn’t sit right with me, but it’s happened on numerous occasions that songs I thought was a bit “meh” ended up being my all time favorites, so just have to keep it in the rotation :)

One thing that really stands out this time are the guitar solos. Absolutely stunning stuff and compared to TBOS on a different planet. Special mention to H who shines like a diamond when it comes to the lead playing this time round.

It's interesting that we all love this band, but can have very different opinions on the songs. I don't get DoTC at all, think it's a stinker basically :D

My thoughts, for what it's worth :) Senjutsu - Driving, unresolvning, menacing, epic. Fresh sounding! Could've been a Priest song if Halford had been on vocals. 4/5 Stratego - Best single since Wickerman? Great short(ish) banger, the chorus is absolutely brilliant. 4/5 WOTW - didn't stick at...

Many have complained about that. I don’t think he’s low in the mix, I think the mix lacks a bit of vocal clarity and top end. A bit sprinkle on the top end would probably work wonders, but TWOTW has a better vocal mix than Stratego so we just have to wait and see what the rest will sound like.

I agree. BNW is a bit rose tinted I believe with H and Bruce coming back. Many of the songs feel like they could’ve fit easily on V XI both in the sound and structure of the songs. The big difference being that the production on BNW was miles ahead of V XI and that the performance of the band...

Yeah, but I didn’t upload it to the interweb or burned copies of it to people :)

I bought BNW three days prior to release in a small shop back in the day. Don’t think it’s possible to get away with that now since everything is tracked and registered in a better way.

Don’t disagree with you at all. In fact, Maiden might benefit dropping down to D#, but what bugs me is that YouTube-reactions often make a big thing about bands playing in “special keys” when they actually are playing the same thing as Maiden does, only a couple of steps down. I myself have been...

Is he a relative major though? :)