litfan10
owner of slave_
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2010
- Posts
- 12,694
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face - Roberta Flack
The greatest love song ever (in my opinion anyway)
That is definitely a worthy choice. I also love Etta James' "At Last"
Blind_Justice
Universe builder
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2012
- Posts
- 3,179
That takes me back, way back. I've seen them on the "Velvet Darkness They Fear" tour half a lifetime ago. My lady love and I were in pretty hard on the "beauty & beast" style of Gothic Metal. Sadly, by now, it's been done to death and beyond. The last bands of that kind which got me excited had been Epica and System Divide/Oracles. Oh, and the first two, three Sirenia records.
Looking at Epica, it's pretty obvious that Mark Jensen (founder, guitarist, growls and some songwriting) is being eaten alive by his own creation. I mean, he founded After Forever and left when they decided to alter their style, then he continued with Epica and looking at his "other" band MaYaN, it's obvious that he's itching to dial down the symphonic elements - at least a bit.
System Divide caught my ear because theirs was a very unlikely setup. Take the beastly vocalist of one of the harsher death metal bands (Aborted) and a beautiful-sounding gothic lady and let them have at it. Their sound was much more brutal and vicious than your normal male/female goth metal. Right up my alley. "The Conscious Sedation" spins rather often these days.
Then there was some kerfuffle between the singers, the band went on hiatus and resurfaced some time later as Oracles with a new female lead. Thankfully, they kept the brutal side of things and delivered one awesome killer album in 2016's Miserycorde
As for Theatre Of Tragedy, "Aegis" is their last gasp before they reinvented themselves to death.
But I'm playing something else entirely at the moment:
AC/DC - You Shook Me All Night Long (as part of a big AC/DC playlist)
Handley_Page
Draco interdum Vincit
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2007
- Posts
- 78,287
Peter Dawson - When the Sergeant Major's on Parade
Haulover
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2014
- Posts
- 2,434
I'm still a sucker for the occasional "beauty and the beast" pieces, though I agree it's been done-to-death. Therion, to me, was the best of that breed. (I saw them live at a ProgPower in Atlanta - must have been 13 or 14 years ago.)
Regarding Theater Of Tragedy, I have:
Assembly
Musique
Theater Of Tragedy
Velvet Darkness They Fear
But not Aegis.
I can't say that any of them ever stuck with me to the point that I wanted to re-spin them - but perhaps I owe them another few listens.
In a similar vein, I had Autumn Tears : Love Poems For Dying Children lined up for tomorrow, between business conference calls.
Blind_Justice
Universe builder
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2012
- Posts
- 3,179
In all fairness, Therion don't really count. Sure, they have female vocals on some of their albums, but they are mostly known for being one of the chief experimenters when it comes to fusing classical music with metal. Albums like "Secret of the Runes" or "Vovin" have few, if any female vocals on them apart from choir passages. "Gothic Kabbalah" (sp?) is an outlier, not the norm.
As for Theatre of Tragedy, their chief distinction is that they were among the first to play that particular style of music, shortly after Paradise Lost invented it with their "Gothic" album (which funnily only had two songs in that style). And most of the albums you listed ARE those "reinventing themselves" records I mentioned.
If you want to listen to more of this style of music, try out The Sins Of Thy Beloved (their first album is a masterclass, hauntingly beautiful!), Trail Of Tears (again, the earlier stuff before they went full on prog) and Tristania (The debut album again is a classic, the rest of their discography ranges from great to abysmal). For something similar, check out Siebenbürgen. They eventually end up in Gothic Metal standards, but their first two albums, "Loreia" and "Grimjaur", are freaking excellent, if very lo-fi.
Blind_Justice
Universe builder
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2012
- Posts
- 3,179
I fell in love with Opeth through "Blackwater Park" and the three or so albums afterwards. By now they are a bit too techy for me to enjoy without half an afternoon set aside. I do like sophisticated stuff, even some math-like shred like Nile, but only in carefully controlled doses. What Death did in their last couple albums is about the most I can stomach on an average day - a couple time changes, maybe a complicated series of breaks before the gas pedal is firmly nailed to the floor again.
But truth be told, lately I'm a man of simple tastes. Case in point:
Massacre - From Beyond
https://youtu.be/dO8SfWn2QHY
Haulover
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2014
- Posts
- 2,434
Yep - Blackwater Park was also my "gateway drug" into Opeth and similar styles. Though, once I became more familiar with the genre, I felt that Still Life was the best of that era.
They've changed completely, I agree. After the Damnation / Deliverance dual release things got more sophisticated but less interesting (for me). No surprise, though. Ackerfeld told me long ago, before they changed their style and most of the personnel, that one of his favorite bands of all time is Camel, and he has a personal hobby of collecting obscure Nordic '70s spacey music.
(I used to do interviews and concert reviews, and wrote over 500 CD reviews, back in the days when I had more time than I do now.)
litfan10
owner of slave_
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2010
- Posts
- 12,694
I like Opeth more now, but my background is more straight prog. I grew up on ELO, Kansas, Yes, Pink Floyd and Alan Parsons Project among others all which framed my tastes.
In college I double majored Writing and Music so I developed a greater appreciation for classical and jazz.
These days I listen to anything and everything except I never could get into death growls.
Haulover
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2014
- Posts
- 2,434
Yep - as mentioned, Opeth's Blackwater Park was my "gateway drug into the cookie monster world
Similar threads
