From: _Regaro_ | #002
Metallica - No Leaf Clover
pretty easily my favorite out of the genre so <_<
I'll let you slide with the lack of a link this time - next time I don't see either youtube.com or the Legend of Zelda protagonist, it's off with your head.
Anyway. Metallica songs always tend to provoke lengthy write ups from me so I'll try to restrain myself. I'm not a fan of them and mostly dislike their post-RtL material. And I really don't like S&M, because inserting orchestra elements into music that wasn't written to work with them is not a great idea. No Leaf Clover at least was presumably written with them in mind though, so that's a plus! It's probably the best song they released after the Black Album, though the competition is...not stellar. It manages to stay fairly interesting the whole way through and Hetfield's voice actually sounds appropriate for it, unlike a lot of modern Metallica stuff. Although I don't care much for his vocals towards the end of the song.
See, lengthy even when I try to show restraint. That's a lot of words to ultimately lead up to...
6/10
From: DpObliVion | #003
I'll post this one because I still have it open in a tab:
God damn it these lengthier songs are the biggest hassle for a topic like this. Nothing against long songs in general (and a lot of my favourites are 8+ minutes long) but they're time consuming for these purposes.
That's also a longer intro than I'd usually be up for, but it's actually pretty good so I can let it slide. Not so keen on what follows though, the whole symphonic death/black metal styles don't tend to work too well in my mind. There's a lot of useless fluff from the keyboards and what I'd assume is a violin or similar, it just feels very out of place. Vocals don't really do too much for me either, cleans feel really bland, and the harsh ones are...just kind of there. The song feels like they're trying to be kind of harsh but not too much and they don't really end up achieving the best qualities of either side.
Overall, I like the intro, and feel like pretty much everything that follows is unremarkable.
4/10
From: Lockes Ragnarok | #004
Between the Buried and Me - Selkies: The Endless Obsession
Have I mentioned I hate Between the Buried and Me? Because I do.
That could be the write up right there but I'll try to be productive. I really don't like the style of dual guitar that gets employed in the intro here. I really don't like the production much either, although it's not TOO overly clean. And the big problem is simply that it doesn't feel coherent at all - we get switches in style and pace periodically that don't flow together at all, there's no real sense of build up to any of up. When I hit the same breakdown riff that every god damn band ever uses these days, only slightly sped up, I've had enough and stop listening.
2.5/10
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We clasped our hands, our hands in praise of a conquerors right to tyranny