ngl Woolgatherer is growing on me.

Album Rating: 3.4

Woolgatherer and the trilogy are the best cuts here.

Album Rating: 3.0

The Woolgatherer / Passanger combo is quite the ride.

Dishonored rules (2)... well the first one anyway, didn't get around to no.2

Album Rating: 4.0

This is god damn gorgeous. The Distraction tracks are insane!

Album Rating: 4.5

I had to lower my score after the 4th spin. It revealed some things that bug me now, like the abusive use of blast beats at certain points and some transitions not being as smooth as I would like. Still a superb effort but Veil has the edge for me now

Album Rating: 3.0 | Sound Off

Yeah are we still doing the whole blastbeat thing in 2022? To its its just a space filler for a better idea

Album Rating: 3.0

Maybe I just need to spin this a few more times, but I'm not very interested after 3 listens. I didn't care for the last one that much either, tbh. The orchestral arrangements are super emphasized but just not very interesting or catchy imo.

Album Rating: 4.5

Blastbeats are just 'new' double pedal. These things are to stay to emphasise certain mood/tempo, don't see them going away at this point. I do agree though they're a little bit overused here

Album Rating: 3.5

Yeah I feel blastbeats are to create a tone not to necessarily be filler, but I can see why it's seen differently

Album Rating: 3.0 | Sound Off

From a composition standpoint it just says to me "what do I do with the next forty seconds while the guitars do there thing.....hmmmm..... oh yeah .... blast beat it out". Blast beat overuse is the equivalent to palm muted open D's twenty years ago

Album Rating: 3.0

The blastbeats are there so often because there are so many passages on this record where all the instruments are arranged in whole/half notes... the only thing in a workable subdivision in these parts is at most consistent 8ths droning from the rhythm guitar, so what else are the drums going to do? If they play a more complicated rhythm, they'll be doing it completely solo...



TLDR pretty sure the blastbeats are because there are a shitload of passages emphasizing slow orchestral parts with boring-ass rhythms. It they built interesting atmosphere it could work, but they're just pure bombast.

Album Rating: 3.0

Idk the blastbeats add very little flair or intrigue by themselves, but they’re okay here as an unobtrusive textural aside. So many far more irritating examples of blasts used in ‘extreme’ metal where they just dominate and detract from the whole. These are tasteful enough for the general tone/mood, could’ve easily been excessive.

Album Rating: 3.0

Sorry, I meant that the passages as a whole could work if they had compelling atmosphere, not that the blastbeats could work if they built atmosphere. I think the blastbeats work fine (and I don't think there are really many other reasonable options for drums there), but those passages as a whole are uninteresting.

Album Rating: 5.0

Hmmm, I'd need to think over that perspective more but I often find the whole/half note orchestration passages act as a nice form of technical levity. Often the passages directly preceding and following the big orchestral swell chord progressions are filled with riffs, intricate acoustic sections, more complex rhythmic patterns, etc. It's certainly a simplistic approach and I think you can safely argue for more variance but I like it, gives songs a sense of breathing to me. Personally find a lot of bands who go ham with the orchestrations tend to overdo it and I seldom approach this kinda stuff intending to find technical wizardry in the symphonic elements.

Album Rating: 4.0

"I just wanted to escape to your domain" - love that section on Woolgatherer. Not a big fan of the doomy part, though.

Album Rating: 4.0

You nerds are over-thinking it, blast beats are sick and this album is tight.

Album Rating: 4.0

ramon et al: "the whole/half note orchestration passages act as a nice form of technical levity. Often the passages directly preceding and following the big orchestral swell chord progressions are filled with riffs, intricate acoustic sections, more complex rhythmic patterns, etc. It's certainly a simplistic approach and I think you can safely argue for more variance but I like it, gives songs a sense of breathing to me. Personally find a lot of bands who go ham with the orchestrations tend to overdo it and I seldom approach this kinda stuff intending to find technical wizardry in the symphonic elements"



me: hehe blast beet go brrr

Album Rating: 5.0

the virgin orchestral swells vs the chad PAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPAPA

Album Rating: 4.0

Exhaler is such a bright and cozy intro oml

I like how they keep the slight colonial american-esque atmosphere, if only for a moment. Reminds me of their earlier material.

Album Rating: 4.0

Oooo nice, I tried listening to Veil back in 2019 and it didn't really grab me, but for some reason this very much did... This satisfies my chaotically epic prog itch. I should check their other stuff