Album Rating: 3.0 | Sound Off

[2]

Album Rating: 3.0 | Sound Off

dangit

Album Rating: 5.0

I think some folks find it too derivative and others think it can't qualify as "trve" because it is too listenable. Personally I don't give a fuck. It's my AOTY and some of the best music I've listened to in a while. I'm not well-versed in death metal or prog to consider it an all-timer but I'm not gonna waste the brain power in trying to argue that particular topic. It's an awesome album as-is.

Album Rating: 4.0

it doesn't flow seamlessly



several of the transitions feel forced



but the individual parts themselves kick ass



compare it to that state faults album where it feels like one cohesive experience from beginning to end. that's where i feel they fell short a bit, because they were clearly going for that type of compositional style

Album Rating: 3.0

Has nothing to do with whether it's "trve" or not. It's a little derivative but not terrible I just didn't find it to be super engaging. Like scoot said, it doesn't flow seamlessly and several transitions are pretty jarring.



Still a really good album but probably not even top 25 for dm in 2024

"I'm not well-versed in death metal or prog"

i see this sentiment all over and i feel like its the reason this is getting so hyper-fellated in the music press. its the first thing a lot of people have heard from either genre and, because they have nothing to really compare it to, its being appraised a lot higher than it really has any right to be. these kinds of albums come along every few years and theres nothing inherently wrong with it, its just a consequence of how people consume music.

honestly the most impressive part of this album is the marketing campaign. whoever is running it succeeded on all fronts.

Album Rating: 3.0 | Sound Off

this is gen z's symbolic

Album Rating: 4.5

As a big fan of melodic death metal and melody tinged death metal, this and JFAC have been my favourites this year in the genre by far

Album Rating: 4.0

"it doesn't flow seamlessly

several of the transitions feel forced

but the individual parts themselves kick ass"



It's not great songwriting, but apparently that doesn't stop an album from becoming massively popular. Also some might just write it off as "because prog". I've just learned to live with it. I don't think that the metal sections or production are exactly user friendly either, so I think holistically it's very confusing, but hey good for BI. They are probably in shock of how popular this has become.

Album Rating: 5.0

I think if your approach is to deconstruct an album down to the minutiae then you're always going to find faults (unless you're trying to dissect Classical music which was essentially written like a mathematic equation and, thusly, has limited to no faults and is the forebearer for anything that came after it). So, yeah, BI aren't classical musicians and how they structure their songs can be seen as problematic if that's the lens in which you evaluate music.



I would really love a point of comparison to figure out my own biases. What is another prog DM record that could be recommended that shares similar DNA to this album?

Album Rating: 3.0

Still a good album but probably not even top 25 for dm in 2024 [2]

you dont need a phd in music to hear that the sections just sort of abruptly end without any sort of transitions.

Album Rating: 5.0

Juxtaposition and change are as valid musical choices, and as powerful, as "flowing seamlessly" or other choices.



Album remains awesome. AOTY. That others don't like it as much for whatever reasons is a choice, and that's cool. But it doesn't change the fact that a huge audience including new audience is totally digging this.

"What is another prog DM record that could be recommended that shares similar DNA to this album?"

its not death metal but enslaved have been doing 70's prog mixed with extreme metal for 20 years now and are significantly more successful at making the two sounds sound cohesive than this is.

Album Rating: 4.0

i kinda dig how abrupt the style changes are.



i dig this better as a prog/blues/psychadelic album than a DM one

Album Rating: 3.0 | Sound Off

not rly i never gave more than a 3 to anything after blodhemn either

Album Rating: 5.0

Any particular Enslaved album, Hyperion?



In a way, it's kind of unfair to argue against the qualities of this album if you can't find a solid sister album to compare it to. If the argument is that another band did prog + some other metal genre better than BI did with prog + DM then you're making an adjacent comparison rather than a 1:1 that better highlights what BI did wrong. I feel like BI is getting this backhanded compliment of making digestible DM when the reality is their mixing genres with soundscapes that are hard to generate a comparison for or against.

Album Rating: 3.5

dont care that much about the transitions, the riffs just aren't as impressive and shed much of their previous character.

Album Rating: 4.0

i don't feel this is as proggy as everyone makes it out to be. its psychadelic influences are stronger than the prog ones to me. it's funny you bring up Enslaved though, Hyperion. in their case I like it when they use prog sparingly, or to keep things a bit interesting, and find them at their weakest when they go full out prog, while I feel the exact opposite about this album. the more it progs and psychs, the better. feel like they actually could've left out all of the growls and it would still work great (except for the sprinkled in, ominous ooohs and aaahs of course, big fan of those)

Album Rating: 5.0

This discussion at least got me to start listening to Ruun which has been pretty good so far. The t/t is excellent.