StefanoHab

r i Poison The Well. Same words.
I graduated in international communication, a master’s in foreign languages, and now I'm in "job hunting" mode... Do you have any tips for finding a job in music journalism?! It would be a dream :-D The review is about the Childs, an overlooked Mexican indie-shoegaze band. I sent it yesterday. Back in "my days," reviews took even just 24 hours to be published; what the hell happened now? You took away my enthusiasm for getting back in front of these pages... :-/

Maybe I never "evolved" like you into the boring grumbler (which, as I've noticed, happens to everyone who started listening to metal at 15 and has now passed 25...) simply because I'm an incurable nostalgic for the old days, and I enjoy listening to records that are 10 years old which, with a critical mindset today, I might evaluate as "mediocre," but they remind me of those times... This doesn't mean I haven't matured; on the contrary, it's the opposite. I hardly listen to death, gothic, and black metal anymore, not to mention power metal, which I've always hated and will always hate... However, I probably have a more forgiving mindset towards music in general, and I try to find something good even in the crap, except when I listen to something that really annoys me. This discussion doesn't apply to the new Alcest simply because I discovered them in 2007 when I was already somewhat grown up, and blackgaze is a brand new genre that didn't even exist when I started listening to metal. I read the review you linked where they gave this album a 4, but my judgment hasn't changed simply because the reasons of that reviewer, just like yours (valid reasons, mind you) are not the same for me. That reviewer also said that Alcest has worn out its welcome with this excessive sweetness that was fine at first but is now unbearable; I, on the other hand, reiterate that this "gook" doesn't bother me because I don't find it banal or kitschy; I consider it an integral part of Alcest's poetics. If you like the sweetness of these atmospheres, then you'll like this album as well. If you don't like it, or find it exaggerated or cloying, you won't like the album, but this is where we enter the realm of personal tastes rather than objective judgments about the melodies and riffs of the album. For me, "kitsch" is nothing more than a synonym for "Manowar" and tackiness in general, passing through a long list of heavy, power, and gothic metal bands with female vocals... I could never consider Alcest as kitsch, because I still see their way of composing as elegant and refined. The Decline says that "Nous Somme L'Emeraude" is a "shit title"; to me, it seems like a perfectly normal title for Alcest, neither more nor less, not very different from the titles of the tracks on "Souvenirs." Similarly, I believe the riffs of this album were composed by Neige with the utmost care and inspiration at the moment he wrote them, and considering them cloying, sugary, and tedious seems more a result of a certain perspective on the album and the artist than the fact that they truly are. It's not for nothing that this album has divided listeners into supporters and detractors: because it all depends on the perspective from which one views it. The argument you made for Alcest, I would make for Katatonia: I have loved them forever, I have ADORDED them, but they were another band! Now I feel like I’m listening to different people, not the same musicians I loved. I was also a hopeless "katatominkia," but if the band completely changes its music and style, I no longer recognize myself in that "katatominkia." I went to see them at Alcatraz in Milan last year, and you don't know how much it annoyed me that they had to play all the songs from the new album first... For me, the real concert started when they began diving into "Viva Emptiness" and down! They are another band, another thing. They play a dark rock dangerously close to Tool and the latest Opeth, which isn’t necessarily a good thing (the third song from the last album seems to be written by the same Opeth). I continue to love them, respect them, adore them, but... This turn of theirs simply doesn't belong to me. Maybe listening to the last album again will change my judgment, and I will like it, but for me, it will never be enough of an album "from Katatonia." The exact SAME discussion applies to another band I adore, Poison The Well. Same words.
I graduated with a master's degree in Foreign Languages, International

This has been one of the seminal reviews of Debaser. MP, a great one!

"I re-vote the review because 'although it is good/great, it remains a childish and very naïve work.' (quote)"

I'm re-voting the album because it seems to me that there are too few 1s.

I also want to join in the poop launch! Me too! Me too! :-D

It's a shame that Debaser doesn't allow comments to be deleted because the first one I wrote is full of mistakes! :-/ I wrote it a bit like .... a dog's... Well, I hope the concept still comes across...

Anyway, I had written that, beyond personal tastes and expectations for the album, the difference lies in the perspective. Neither you nor I are deaf, stupid, or musically ignorant, quite the opposite… The record remains the same; it's just our respective ways of seeing it that change! You focused on the aspects that seemed negative to you, like the repetitiveness, the sweetness, the lack of originality, and the way it was played that made it seem almost "fake"... I, on the other hand, didn't really consider these elements at all, and concentrated solely on the emotions that the dreamlike atmospheres and especially the guitar riffs were able to convey to me. And there are some, especially in the second and seventh songs, that I find truly overwhelming in their emotionality. That's why I endorsed the album: because I liked it! I found it in line with Alcest's poetic style, and a mature record. I certainly COULDN'T and DIDN'T WANT to expect a new "Souvenirs"... I fully respect your opinion on the album, but I had a different one because I saw it differently :-) I can't write more, otherwise I would have to do a new review on the album, and there are already 2... Thank you for the opportunity for discussion, especially since you are one of the few people with whom it's truly a pleasure to do so! ;-)

I don't know why, but the whole part where I talked about the Alcest album got deleted from the comment :-/

Dear Hell, rereading your latest comments, I believe there is only one answer (beyond: the difference in perspective).
I would also like to clarify a point to avoid misunderstandings. I never meant to say that you were "snobbish" because of your comments on the album, but rather that the tone of your review made me reflect on a certain mindset that I have seen too often on Debaser, which seems to be the distorted descendant of the Scaruffiano ghost, which I believe is the enemy philosophy number 1 of music (meaning: I did NOT mean to say that you REALLY did that! Knowing you, I know full well you have nothing to do with those people described here, but the tone of the review brought all of that to mind and made me comment on that "seems snobbish"! I hope I have clarified myself, even if it wasn't easy :-/
I never said that metalheads like the ones you described don’t exist. Even though I frequented various metal sites more as a reviewer than as a forum-goer, I have certainly seen people like those you described... I just had to read certain letters that arrived in Metal Hammer in 2002/2003 when there was still a mail service, and despite being at the beginning of my approach to metal back then, it still made my stomach turn... However, reading the forums of sites like truemetal but especially neuroprison, I do not see just a mass of these "http://nonciclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Sedicenne_metallaro", I also see musically prepared people who think for themselves. But above all, what annoys me the most is precisely that it annoys me because I did it too back then. If new albums by Marduk and Dark Tranquillity came out, if albums by "clone" bands came out, whether they sounded like melodic death like Kalmah or doom like Mourning Beloveth, if I listened to an album and liked it, even if it was banal and added nothing to the genre, even if it lacked personality, I would buy that album. It was reheated soup, I loved it. So what? I liked it! I enjoyed listening to that soup, and often it was about even good albums, which might have gotten ratings between 6.5 and 7.5 in reviews, but how many chances would such albums have had on a site like Debaser, of not ending up in the toilet buried under avalanches of 1s? Sure, I was only 16-17 years old and those times are gone; now I would never do something like that, especially because I know the market is saturated, full of stuff, and if one has to listen to something, it’s better to dedicate their attention to the TRULY valid works. But I would never allow myself to belittle the kids who do that, labeling them as metalheads who understand nothing. I would never look down on them, simply because I have gone through that phase too, and it was precisely that relative "ignorance" that allowed me to develop my passion, to grow, mature, and become what I am today, musically speaking. Because it is also through "mediocre" albums that one develops their own musical awareness, taste, and culture. That’s all. Of course, there are many idiotic and ignorant metalheads, and I would gladly smash my head against the wall as soon as they open their mouths, but I repeat, they are just "a part", I would never generalize about an entire category of people and listeners calling them "metalheads" as if they were all like that because they are not.
P.S. I reserve the right to listen to the latest Katatonia with more attention, even another 10 times if necessary, but it really has left a bitter taste in my mouth... What do you think instead? I'm curious! :-)
P.P.S. I just sent a new review that I hope will be published today... I missed Debaser, even though I rarely show up, now that I have finished studying and graduated I hope to be more present on these pages! ;-)