mementomori

Damn, these characters are unreadable! Yet it seems to me that I'm doing things as usual... editors, am I doing something wrong? help me heeeeellpp meeeeee (said with the voice of Patrick Mameli in Spheres)

Hello everyone, thanks for the compliments. Indeed, lately I've been suffering from a worrying decline in my reviewing inspiration, but I think I'll bounce back in the coming days; I have a few ideas in the works. By the way, Rocky, just the other day I sent a review of Darkwood, maybe we can discuss it there. As for the Death in June live show, I wasn't able to snag tickets; going to concerts has become a job... In any case, from what I've read afterward, it doesn't seem like I missed much: Fire + Ice apparently were terrible, while Death in June basically repeated the concert I saw almost 10 years ago at Siddartha to promote All Pigs Must Die, same Douglas and same Murphy on drums, nothing new under the runes...

The problem with Manowar concerts is that the music (excluding the speeches, self-celebrations, self-indulgent solos, and the finales of the songs where our protagonists linger for at least a quarter of an hour on each piece) accounts for only 30% of the event... an experience not worth repeating (not even from a sociological perspective, given that they don't even manage to make the true metallers, who can stand with their arms crossed making the hammer sign for the entire duration of the event - about 3 hours, hats off to them - smile).

The problem is that Sorrentino is really a poor fellow, his cinema has never excited me, I’ve always found it empty, at best a style exercise. However, while I was watching this film, it flowed well; thinking back, it seemed like half a pile of crap. But I did get a chill: when Penn almost at the end meets Stanton in a bar, I had the impression that it (badly) recalled a true story by Lynch… Stanton's cameo (the brother so sought after by the protagonist of a true story) seemed to me a nice meta-cinematic trick… or have I lost my mind?

Finally listened to it! What can I say: exceptional. They never miss a shot, even the previous black cascade, after the initial disappointment it caused me for losing many of their characteristic traits, I now consider a masterpiece, just like this latest one. But let’s not be fooled: celestial lineage is not a masterpiece just for its return to ambient and folk sounds; they know how to play black metal like it was done back in '95, and paradoxically they sound mystical and "popol vuh" (an influence I also noticed in the brutal predecessor) precisely in the fastest and densest moments. Great use of keyboards (at times it sounds like the old emperor, with dynamic tempos that only a master like faust was thought capable of dictating), but above all great guitar (damn, I've never heard a solo with wah wah in a black album) and an immense drums (aaron weaver navigates skins and cymbals with the grace of robert wyatt during his soft machine days). Certainly, not everything is excellent, and the ambient parts seem more like fillers diluting the substance of the album, but what can you blame a band that crafts 10-minute pieces in which we can easily identify 3/4 memorable passages, without losing a thread of tension? Immense.

ooooo, finally - damn - someone damn gives a 5 to this work (and I haven't listened to it yet - but I'm sure it MUST be the album of the year!)...enough with the mental wanking or judgments made after two listens on YouTube...these are albums to digest, albums that don’t change history, but precisely for this reason they deserve a 5! (I'm dead drunk)

In my opinion, the fact that Accept is returning in 2011 with an album without Udo is a sign of the times' decay just like the success of Lady Gaga. But what's the point of resurrecting a historic name without a fundamental pillar? Udo, in his own small way, is truly an icon... But why can't people understand that at a certain point one needs to take responsibility to safeguard a name and just stay quiet? I'm not speaking out of nostalgia; I was never a big fan of Accept, but I loved imagining Hoffmann as an honest man who could have easily spent his days playing in small clubs or maybe releasing something solo. After all, being the guitarist of a historic band would have helped him even in terms of sales... For sure, it’s quality work; Hoffmann is a great musician. I'm not saying he's fooling us with a nostalgia product that has no substance, but he could have spared us this move. This is just a maneuver to exploit the name of a legendary band, like the reunion of Queen without Freddie Mercury or Judas Priest without Halford. So, Udo is better off with his solo career and the classics of Accept still performed at concerts. Bah, this whole thing doesn’t convince me; in fact, it makes me a little sad…

But how, only 4? I haven't heard it yet, but I would have given at least 5 to Two Hunters and Black Cascade, and it seems to me that based on the described content it's not inferior to its predecessors, in fact maybe even better... Am I the only one who considers Wolves the best black metal band of the third millennium?

I must say that I adore Anathema, but I have to admit that something is missing from them, and I realized this last year when I saw them live as the opening act for Porcupine Tree: they seemed faded, a second-rate band that just doesn't take off... I don't know, they lack charisma. They have the rare ability to move, but there are limits that I can't quite explain, as if one expects a big leap and then it never happens. Their albums—exceptional—always seem to be missing something, I don't know. Paradoxically, it is in the doom/death phase that they show themselves to be top of the class (and probably "Pentecost III" is their peak in terms of intensity). They have evolved well, really well, better than Tiamat and Paradise Lost. I wouldn't completely write off My Dying Bride; they have stumbled with their last three albums, but otherwise, they've always been excellent in their genre, and they've produced at least two masterpieces... What, then, is the masterpiece of Anathema? No one can say; "Alternative 4" academically mimics Pink Floyd's "The Final Cut", and from "Judgement" onwards, they have drawn closer to Radiohead and Sigur Rós. In the latest album, Wilson's production helped, but they always seem to be missing something, I don't know what it is. The strange thing is that they know how to evoke emotions—I repeat—but it never happens that you say, "Ah, here it is, the masterpiece of Anathema!" They reach lofty heights, then lose themselves in a glass of water, and even this latest endeavor (which leaves me perplexed on paper, but I will definitely buy the CD—being the real fan that I am, I know they won't disappoint me) seems pointless to me; their discography didn't need it, and it further dilutes their career, adding yet another "album that doesn't disappoint, that is fine, but we expect better from the next one." Here: it seems to me they have become the band that never disappoints (and that's no small thing) but also is not capable of making one shout in awe. I hope to change my mind. Great review.

Hi Ale, you catch me off guard... just like that, the first names that come to mind are Sonne Hagal and Forseti, along the lines of Orplid and In Gowan Ring... I can't think of anything instrumental, but if you're interested in a folk style like the second album by Ulver, then I can recommend Atrocity's EP "Calling the Rain" (by the way, they released a sequel recently)... but look at that, what an album you make me think of...