it's not like those are new

Album Rating: 4.5

No I know, I was just taking stock of the colorful vocabulary metal bands/heads come up with to describe techniques.



Sounds like a high level spell the last boss in a RPG would use on you.

Album Rating: 3.5

metal drummers were like "paradiddles? pataflaflas? flamacues? must make drumming edgier"



G R A V I T Y B L A S T

Album Rating: 4.0

S K A N K B L A S T

They literally use gravity to blast harder. It's a good term.

Album Rating: 2.5

May the blast be with you

Album Rating: 4.0

Hey Trif don’t lump my 4/5 in with your 3/5, they’re not the same... *storms off*

Album Rating: 2.5

I'm surprised the average has held strong this long. You're more likely to find a metal hook in a random narwal than anywhere in this album.

hook

Album Rating: 4.5

Imagine being concerned with 'hooks' in music, especially within atmospheric technical death-metal. I don't really care for easily reproducible earworms which I can latch onto and bang my head to, so much as I care for emotive and sonically impactful expression. I can't imagine how quickly I'd be bored, if 'hooks' were ever a concern for me when listening to music.

the hook brings you back dude

Album Rating: 4.0

Nah I love hooks, just depends on how much depth there is to accompany them, or how potentially annoying said hook becomes after many listens. Also the idea of a ‘hook’ is completely subjective, music often reveals these ear-worms at a later date, they may not be obvious, or even intentional, but that’s not say they can’t exist.

I’ll admit that anything greatly infectious on the first spin tends to become tiresome, or even detrimental after a short while. Guess the short answer is ‘depends’.

Demon comment [2]
Hooks >>> music
Atmosphere with hooks >>> music
bad music with hooks >>> boring music without hooks
gonna post this and then work out how much i disagree with it hmm

Album Rating: 5.0

Yeah a hook for me is just any part of a song that repeats in my head and I look forward to on repeated listens. I would consider many parts of this album to be "hooks" to my ears. People just hate the term because its associated with pop choruses and we cant have that in our super inaccessible dissonant metal because were better than that.

Album Rating: 4.5

@Demon: I will agree, although generally I think we can come up with a some applicable, operative definition: we may claim that music that is 'hook' focused, tends to emphasize easily reproducible parts which can ingrain themsleves in your mind and perhaps even accord a song a certain (god forgive me) 'catchyness'. In order to achieve such an effect you tend to have to water-down the surrounding musical decor to allow the 'hook' to take center stage. The usage of repetitive compositional structures which often accompany such 'hook' based songs doesn't help to prevent sterility.

Although this aesthetic might be pleasant at first, I don't think it helps grant music the type of sonical or emotional impact that would cause me to return later down the line. The vast majority of my absolute favourite music doesn't necessarily allow me to easily latch on or reproduce it, there is no single element that hooks me so to speak, rather it is the musical piece in its totality, along with the sonic impact and emotive aspects that it imparts, which keeps me returning to those records again and again. I'd rather be alienated and confused, than hooked, if I'm honest - I find that experience far more rewarding.

TL;DR: A too significant emphasis on hooks can cause music to become sterile. Personally, although some of my favourite music might contain certain hooks, it is not why those albums/songs appeal to me generally.

Album Rating: 4.5

this feels way more hook-y than their last few albums. probably all of them really.

Imagine being concerned with 'hooks' in music

Album Rating: 4.5

Conceptually, its great food for thought. As far as actual music listening is concerned, fuck hooks.

Album Rating: 3.0

Sorry Demon, I won't ever do it again. Maybe.

Should have said "...despite ratings such as mine and Rowhaus'". Except for your 4.0 also taking the average down, since it sits at a 4.3 right now.

"In order to achieve such an effect you tend to have to water-down the surrounding musical decor to allow the 'hook' to take center stage."
aka a key component of good songwriting in a huge proportion of music that isn't primarily aesthetic
"The usage of repetitive compositional structures which often accompany such 'hook' based songs doesn't help to prevent sterility."
smart writing will often revise the framing of a hook or develop it as the track goes on, so i'm not sure this works as a structural criticism