Maidenfans Album Club: Purest of Pain - Solipsis

I’ll go with Death’s Symbolic. Chuck’s vocals may be the one obstacle because they’re not like any he’d done before, noticeably in a higher pitch (but not so high as they were on TSOP). But the riffs are awesome and the lyrics really well written, so they at least could appeal to newcomers in that regard.
 
Carcass - Heartwork

LC: do you dislike extreme metal in general or is there something specific to death metal you don’t dig?
 
I'm not nominating anything cause I'm off to Macedonia for a week in Sunday and I don't wish to incur the wrath of Wiz again - who seems to be in a particularly bad mood recently anyway. Otherwise, I'd nominate Dark Millennium's Ashore The Celestial Burden but, for reasons mentioned above, I pass.
 
I’ll go with Death’s Symbolic. Chuck’s vocals may be the one obstacle because they’re not like any he’d done before, noticeably in a higher pitch (but not so high as they were on TSOP). But the riffs are awesome and the lyrics really well written, so they at least could appeal to newcomers in that regard.
That's a good one. Always loved Misanthrope and Without Judgement. I think I even nominated that one earlier in the thread.
 
@LooseCannon : I will recommend ya the Danish band BAEST. They’re from Aarhus and are an “easy” gateway to def metal on your ref petal. Their main source of inspiration is early death metal era and should be “easy” listening for a buddy not to adapt to death in general.
 
I will nominate the album Slaughter of the Soul by At The Gates. It's definitely one of my favourite albums out there. It has an array of powerful yet memorable riffs as well as slower far more melodic moments that help to make the album a bit more far reaching and welcoming to other listeners. I'd definitely feel this one is a solid album to get something started.
 
So yes, I don’t listen to metalcore. Purest of Pain is a band that falls into a weird class. Calling them death metal is a little blasphemous, but calling them deathcore is too harsh. The metalcore is there for sure, but I feel like their death metal elements and their metalcore elements never truly merge into one unit. Purest of Pain does a good job of keeping them separate. This creates a welcome dissonance in their sound. Speaking of their sound, I also appreciated the hardcore elements strewn throughout Solipsis. The hardcore elements were at their most prominent in the (true) opening tracks of Truth-Seeker and Vessels. I call them true opening tracks because the first track, The Pragmatic, is a little opening throw away ditty. The upcoming interlude Sleep of Reason and the ending bit titled THE END (most metalcore bands don’t make it through public school so cut them some slack) can be chucked out too. Utterly pointless.
I'm pretty sure they're not a Deathcore band. It's not a style I'm particularly familiar with (because it sucks) but I think Deathcore tends to be more discordant. I think Purest of Pain were described in a review as something like "Melodeath with a modern twist", which is presumably a nod to the Hardcore/Metalcore influences. 'Sollipsis' is too Metal to be Metalcore in my opinion. The influences are there but it sounds more like a Melodeath album to me - not that I would ever claim to be an expert on Melodeath.
It features the talents of one Sam C.A., but I can’t find anything out about this guy through online searches (maybe @Black Wizard can help me out on this one).
I have absolutely no idea who he is! :lol:
About halfway into this album, I actually took an in depth look at the cover art. Well, there’s not much to look at really. I guess this is where the budget truly fell through for this thing
I think money was raised for the album through crowd-funding, so you're probably right.

Wesus, Jiz, how you can like this and accuse Slayer of being repetitive is beyond me, frankly.
Slayer have twelve albums which all sound the same and their entire career is based on a handful of good songs - the rest suck. Purest of Pain have one album and might not even make another as Merel Bechtold has about 200 other projects. It's not a valid comparison. The lead guitar work on 'Sollipsis' is infintely better than anything Kerry King has done because he's a dreadful guitarist. After a few album he started taking lessons because he was getting laughed at for his shitty, out-of-key solos. The first few notes of the 'War Ensemble' solo are exactly the first thing he was taught in his first lesson, which just about says it all really. How people can still think Slayer are good is beyond me, frankly.
Convince LC to Like Death Metal.

Pick the Death Metal album that you think should convince someone to like Death Metal.
Purest of Pain - Sollipsis
 
I'm pretty sure they're not a Deathcore band. It's not a style I'm particularly familiar with (because it sucks) but I think Deathcore tends to be more discordant. I think Purest of Pain were described in a review as something like "Melodeath with a modern twist", which is presumably a nod to the Hardcore/Metalcore influences. 'Sollipsis' is too Metal to be Metalcore in my opinion. The influences are there but it sounds more like a Melodeath album to me - not that I would ever claim to be an expert on Melodeath.

Melodeath with a modern twist is good enough for me. Like I said, I think they walk a fine line between all the influences going on. There is a lot going on in their sound and they manage to keep the sound interesting. Parts of Solipsis do get boring though. Too much of a good maybe with all the breakdowns? I don't know. Also interesting to hear they crowdfunded the album. I was wondering why it took them so long to get their debut out.
 
Melodeath with a modern twist is good enough for me. Like I said, I think they walk a fine line between all the influences going on.
As I said with my review of the album, it's the kind of thing In Flames could have made if they'd stayed as a heavy band instead of taking the "mellow" from Melodeath. On 'Colony' there is a song called 'Insipid' - that was clearly a hint of what was to come.
Also interesting to hear they crowdfunded the album. I was wondering why it took them so long to get their debut out.
Merel Bechtold was busy doing other things. She got some recognition in Holland and started playing with MaYaN (Symphonic Death Metal band with a million members) and toured with Anneke van Giersbergen when she was doing The Gentle Storm, then she ended up as Delain's touring extra guitarist for a couple of years. All more lucrative opportunities than Purest of Pain I suspect.

Are the people who are nominating albums again going to bother listening to this album? (One of you is obsessed with reviewing albums too...)
 
Well, first of all I didn't know about this thread, that's why I didn't participate. I like the concept and I hope this thread will stay alive.

I also apologise in advance to BW, because while I can say I enjoyed the album, I can't say I actually liked it, let alone loved it. I tried to be as open-minded as possible, but this really isn't what I search for in metal. See below on that.

What suprised me at first was the length of the tracks - these are often very short, aren't they? Doesn't help me to think they are all truly finished and fully baked, but I admit that's mostly prejudice. Mastodon or System of a Down have a lot of short tracks and a lot happens within them... still it felt like a swarm of intro tracks at the beginning. Nitpicks - not important.

I admit I'm not all that knowledgeable about melodeath (apart from certain bands) and I wouldn't tell apart metalcore from deathcore if they danced in front of me naked, but this is not really a type melodeath I know or would appreciate. When I think "melodeath", I think more or less of melodic, slightly Maiden-ish type stuff, slightly faster and more technical, with growls. At least that I got from my admittedly brief affair with Arch Enemy. Other than that, I know and like Amon Amarth and some Children of Bodom stuff (which this also doesn't remind me)... and that's pretty much all. Oh, and Pete Wildoer, either in Darkane or on those LaBrie solo albums. Yes, I have listened to early At the Gates and Be'lakor, but I don't remember them all that much.

However this here album doesn't sound like any of the above to me. Yup, there are some harmonies and snippets of melody here and there, but in general it's very monotonous in its approach and much less melodic than I expected.
I don't like the sound of the drums - I'm a n00b and don't understand production, but this here sound is the same one I hate about Mangini's work in DT - I'm not sure whether you call it "triggered" or whatever, but it's really off-putting to me.
In fact, the drum sound and the "rhythmic" nature of the music remind me of some of the "technical" bands like Meshuggah, who use that sound to focus on the weird rhythms etc and also sort of marginalise the melody.
But this is not a true technical album, so it feels kinda empty in that regard.

Even Black Dahlia Murder at least keep it more interesting by being so mind-blowingly brutal (for a melodeath band, that is).

From time to time it even sounds a bit... nu-metalish? maybe? to me (which is not meant as an offence, as I don't really see the need to demonise the genre - one of the bands I dipped into in the past 7 days is Deftones and I like them a lot - also, Roots are great, whatever anyone might have to say about it), but maybe that's the metalcore influence I can't quite recognise.

That said, it definitely has its share of good riffs and melodies and solos. The first song that I genuinely enjoyed was Momentum, then I recall liking Trial & Error, Terra Nil, E.M.D.R. and the title track and that's probably it. These five songs I'm actually looking forward to playing again in the foreseeable future.

Put together, it's kinda "middle of the road" for me - not melodic enough for me to remember/enjoy/have an emotional response to and not heavy or "wanky" enough to compensate for that. I'll probably give it another listen soon, just to see if it stays with me or fades away. I'll post any significant development here, if there'll be one.

Oh, and also

This is definitely the worst death metal album I've heard.

First of all: dude, seriously? In the genre of The Unspoken King, Illud Divinum Insanus or Perverse Recollections of a Necromangler (or, hell, Carnivorous Erection, why not?) you pick this one?

Second of all, from the rules
2. Keep it positive with each other. You can dislike the album all you want! But be respectful of others opinions.

to which I would consider it a common decency to at least try to politely explain why would you spit out such a harsh statement, especially since BW was obviously championing the album and cares about it a lot.

But whatever.

As for the nomination (a death metal album to teach a person to death metal) - that's easy, Opeth - Ghost Reveries.
 
Well, first of all I didn't know about this thread, that's why I didn't participate. I like the concept and I hope this thread will stay alive.

I also apologise in advance to BW, because while I can say I enjoyed the album, I can't say I actually liked it, let alone loved it. I tried to be as open-minded as possible, but this really isn't what I search for in metal. See below on that.

What suprised me at first was the length of the tracks - these are often very short, aren't they? Doesn't help me to think they are all truly finished and fully baked, but I admit that's mostly prejudice. Mastodon or System of a Down have a lot of short tracks and a lot happens within them... still it felt like a swarm of intro tracks at the beginning. Nitpicks - not important.

I admit I'm not all that knowledgeable about melodeath (apart from certain bands) and I wouldn't tell apart metalcore from deathcore if they danced in front of me naked, but this is not really a type melodeath I know or would appreciate. When I think "melodeath", I think more or less of melodic, slightly Maiden-ish type stuff, slightly faster and more technical, with growls. At least that I got from my admittedly brief affair with Arch Enemy. Other than that, I know and like Amon Amarth and some Children of Bodom stuff (which this also doesn't remind me)... and that's pretty much all. Oh, and Pete Wildoer, either in Darkane or on those LaBrie solo albums. Yes, I have listened to early At the Gates and Be'lakor, but I don't remember them all that much.

However this here album doesn't sound like any of the above to me. Yup, there are some harmonies and snippets of melody here and there, but in general it's very monotonous in its approach and much less melodic than I expected.
I don't like the sound of the drums - I'm a n00b and don't understand production, but this here sound is the same one I hate about Mangini's work in DT - I'm not sure whether you call it "triggered" or whatever, but it's really off-putting to me.
In fact, the drum sound and the "rhythmic" nature of the music remind me of some of the "technical" bands like Meshuggah, who use that sound to focus on the weird rhythms etc and also sort of marginalise the melody.
But this is not a true technical album, so it feels kinda empty in that regard.

Even Black Dahlia Murder at least keep it more interesting by being so mind-blowingly brutal (for a melodeath band, that is).

From time to time it even sounds a bit... nu-metalish? maybe? to me (which is not meant as an offence, as I don't really see the need to demonise the genre - one of the bands I dipped into in the past 7 days is Deftones and I like them a lot - also, Roots are great, whatever anyone might have to say about it), but maybe that's the metalcore influence I can't quite recognise.

That said, it definitely has its share of good riffs and melodies and solos. The first song that I genuinely enjoyed was Momentum, then I recall liking Trial & Error, Terra Nil, E.M.D.R. and the title track and that's probably it. These five songs I'm actually looking forward to playing again in the foreseeable future.

Put together, it's kinda "middle of the road" for me - not melodic enough for me to remember/enjoy/have an emotional response to and not heavy or "wanky" enough to compensate for that. I'll probably give it another listen soon, just to see if it stays with me or fades away. I'll post any significant development here, if there'll be one.

Oh, and also



First of all: dude, seriously? In the genre of The Unspoken King, Illud Divinum Insanus or Perverse Recollections of a Necromangler (or, hell, Carnivorous Erection, why not?) you pick this one?

Second of all, from the rules


to which I would consider it a common decency to at least try to politely explain why would you spit out such a harsh statement, especially since BW was obviously championing the album and cares about it a lot.

But whatever.

As for the nomination (a death metal album to teach a person to death metal) - that's easy, Opeth - Ghost Reveries.
Ok, I'm sorry. I did explain (very briefly) my feelings towards this album previously. I also haven't listened to those albums you mentioned. And last but not least: I'm fairly certain that BW can't even see my posts so I doubt he got offended.
 
Seeing as it has been 6 months now, is it safe to say that there's not a single album out there that will convince LC to like Death Metal?
More like people stopped taking it seriously and bailed the second they saw an album they might not like. I've been thinking of ways to resurrect this but keep people interested.
 
More like people stopped taking it seriously and bailed the second they saw an album they might not like. I've been thinking of ways to resurrect this but keep people interested.
A shame too. Although it took me a minute to listen to Purest of Pain's album, I enjoyed it simply for the fact it was new to me and I wouldn't have listened to it otherwise.
 
A shame too. Although it took me a minute to listen to Purest of Pain's album, I enjoyed it simply for the fact it was new to me and I wouldn't have listened to it otherwise.
Well that was the point. Lots of people don't seem to want to be challenged.
 
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