Poll: Do you think 2009 has been a good year for music so far?

[Njaard]

I sure know I do, Porcupine Tree, Between The Buried and Me, Dream Theater, Alice in Chains, Mastodon, Megadeth and Muse in one year! What's even more surprizing is the fact that none of them were dissapointments, to me, at least. It's almost too good to be true. I don't follow the charts all that much, so I have no idea if pop music has been as horrible as the last couple of years, but from my taste of music it has been a fantastic year.

BTBAMs new CD was pretty good. Not as good as colors but still respectable. The best album of the year imo came from August Burns Red. Very nice to see Every Time I Die put out a really good album after their last one was kinda disappointing.

What I like about The Great Misdirect is that it's a lot more focused than Colors, but it lacks the raw emotion of the latter. Unfortunately I haven't been able to check out the new ABR and EID.

See I think it is the opposite. I think they started to go down the musical masturbation road on some of the songs in The Great Misdirect while I loved how colors was one long song. Ya the new ETID is really good and ABR definitely put out their best record to date. The guitars are sooooo much better in Constellations.

Personally I found the whacky sections of Color somewhat damaging to the flow of the songs, in The Great Misdirect they keep it to one song. I consider Colors and The Great Misdirect to be equals in therms of musical quality, they just do it in two different ways. I don't know if The Great Misdirect will last as long as Colors, though, because Colors has been a frequent listen since it was released. Too bad my wallet is a bit thin at the moment, but I'll check the albums out when I can.

I prefer Colors to be honest, the songs have better clean breaks and there weren't nearly enough jazz solos in TGM, I mean, the soloing all over that album is a little shoddy, especially when you compare it to say, the ending solo to White Walls on Colors Live, it doesn't get much better than that.

While that may be true I think that the improvement in vocals make up for the solos not being at par with Colors. To be honest I preffer the clean breaks in TGM, but as I mentioned the whole album has a different feel from Colors, and the clean interludes are no exception.

Interesting, I'm a guitarist, so it disappointed me not to see epics like White Walls on this album, but I do enjoy TGM a lot.

So am I, and so do I. Swim To The Moon has enough guitar wankery to keep me happy =)

 

[Njaard]

Poomanchu, thanks for the advice about the new ABR record, I found a stream of it, it's pretty smooth.
*This was not a shameless bump*

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Man, I can't wait for all the classic rock guys to come in and rage against all the pop stuff that was out this year =P

Here I am!

OP: It's all crap. Metal, pop, rap, etc. are all just different genres that follow a very specific formula that discourages creativity, they just appeal to different demographics but they are all equally uncreative.

They may follow a specific formula, but I'd go as far as say it's a fact that genres like prog rock/metal have a lot fewer rules in therms of structure, and thus are more likely to come up with something creative. Another thing is that bands like Mastodon have tried to reinvent the formula with their latest album "Crack The Skye", and I'd say they've been very successful. I agree with you to some extent when you say rap, pop and metal follows a specific formula, but what metal lacks in originality it gains in therms of raw energy in the music, as opposed to your average RnB/pop song which has been stripped of all it's energy in the studio.

I maintain that metal is just the same as rap and pop because both of those genres are about pure energy as well, metal just thrives on negative or aggresive energy to please it's base instead of pop's overly-positive energy and rap's "Dancability" energy; the problem is that they are all energy and no substance. I would, however, like to hear an example of this "Prog Rock" of which you speak (Man I sound old ) the "Prog" stands for "Progressive" correct? I'm always open to new things.

The energy I feel listening to metal is anything but negative.

Sure some of it is angry, but it's a release channel for the anger, therefore positive.

Metal makes me feel energised, happy and alive.

miracleofsound, that's exactly what I meant. And to wouldyoukindly, check out Mastodon's album "Crack The Skye", Porcupine Tree's album "The Incident" or Between The Buried and Me's "the Great Misdirect". If you just want to check out single songs try "Oblivion" by Mastodon, "Bonnie the Cat" and "Time Flies" by Porcupine Tree, and "Fossil Genera" by Between the Buried and me. The prog may have evolved, or even devolved, if that's your opinion, a lot from the 70s and 80s, but it's still progressive music.

Fuck yeah, throwing on some Lamb of God and jumping around my room like a demented ape makes me feel better than any drug could.

 

[aruseusx]

Depends how you look at it. For metal it was like this:
1) Varg Vikerness was released from jail this year under parole for the murder of Oystein "Euronymous" Aarseth and the arson of several chruches.
2) Gorgoroth break up due to a name dispute and Gaahl retires from his music career
3) Faith No More reunite
4) Fear Factory reunites without Raymond Herrera and Christian Olde Wolbers and are replaced by Gene Hoglan and Dino Cazares(<---asshole)
5) Gorguts and Accept reunite
6) Megadeth and Slayer do a tour together in Australia (I went)
7) Dream Theater, Megadeth, Behemoth release new albums

Now in my opinion it was a very interesting year since FNM and FF reunite and Varg Vikerness being released. The new albums that came out this year very solid.

 

[Njaard]

Man, I can't wait for all the classic rock guys to come in and rage against all the pop stuff that was out this year =P

Here I am!

OP: It's all crap. Metal, pop, rap, etc. are all just different genres that follow a very specific formula that discourages creativity, they just appeal to different demographics but they are all equally uncreative.

I'm still very interested on your opinion on the examples I posted, though it may be a bit offtopic

 

[EscapeGoat_v1legacy]

It's been pretty damn good, I think. New albums from Muse, Alestorm, Megadeth, Mastodon, Biffy Clyro and Them Crooked Vultures, as well as a Greatest Hits from Foo Fighters have made this one awesome year for me.

 

[Artemis923]

Man, I can't wait for all the classic rock guys to come in and rage against all the pop stuff that was out this year =P

Here I am!

OP: It's all crap. Metal, pop, rap, etc. are all just different genres that follow a very specific formula that discourages creativity, they just appeal to different demographics but they are all equally uncreative.

They may follow a specific formula, but I'd go as far as say it's a fact that genres like prog rock/metal have a lot fewer rules in therms of structure, and thus are more likely to come up with something creative. Another thing is that bands like Mastodon have tried to reinvent the formula with their latest album "Crack The Skye", and I'd say they've been very successful. I agree with you to some extent when you say rap, pop and metal follows a specific formula, but what metal lacks in originality it gains in therms of raw energy in the music, as opposed to your average RnB/pop song which has been stripped of all it's energy in the studio.

I maintain that metal is just the same as rap and pop because both of those genres are about pure energy as well, metal just thrives on negative or aggresive energy to please it's base instead of pop's overly-positive energy and rap's "Dancability" energy; the problem is that they are all energy and no substance. I would, however, like to hear an example of this "Prog Rock" of which you speak (Man I sound old ) the "Prog" stands for "Progressive" correct? I'm always open to new things.

The energy I feel listening to metal is anything but negative.

Sure some of it is angry, but it's a release channel for the anger, therefore positive.

Metal makes me feel energised, happy and alive.

Well said, warrior! I lift a tankard of mead in your honor.

OT, Any year that gives me a new Immortal cd is a good year.

 

[dududf]

We had that, so god yes.

MIC SPAM AHOOOOOY!

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Man, I can't wait for all the classic rock guys to come in and rage against all the pop stuff that was out this year =P

Here I am!

OP: It's all crap. Metal, pop, rap, etc. are all just different genres that follow a very specific formula that discourages creativity, they just appeal to different demographics but they are all equally uncreative.

They may follow a specific formula, but I'd go as far as say it's a fact that genres like prog rock/metal have a lot fewer rules in therms of structure, and thus are more likely to come up with something creative. Another thing is that bands like Mastodon have tried to reinvent the formula with their latest album "Crack The Skye", and I'd say they've been very successful. I agree with you to some extent when you say rap, pop and metal follows a specific formula, but what metal lacks in originality it gains in therms of raw energy in the music, as opposed to your average RnB/pop song which has been stripped of all it's energy in the studio.

I maintain that metal is just the same as rap and pop because both of those genres are about pure energy as well, metal just thrives on negative or aggresive energy to please it's base instead of pop's overly-positive energy and rap's "Dancability" energy; the problem is that they are all energy and no substance. I would, however, like to hear an example of this "Prog Rock" of which you speak (Man I sound old ) the "Prog" stands for "Progressive" correct? I'm always open to new things.

The energy I feel listening to metal is anything but negative.

Sure some of it is angry, but it's a release channel for the anger, therefore positive.

Metal makes me feel energised, happy and alive.

Well said, warrior! I lift a tankard of mead in your honor.

OT, Any year that gives me a new Immortal cd is a good year.

And with a new Slayer album on the horizon, it could be a happy Christmas this year.

 

[superbleeder12]

Afterlives released their first album this year. Which is fucking amazing.

New CKY, Carver City is pretty decent, has some good songs on it.

Black Math Horseman Released their first full length album.

The Antlers released Hospice and has been pretty enjoyable.

The Dear Hunter released Act III, not as good as act II but still very enjoyable

Giant Squid released The Ichthyologist which is as good as their first album.

Isis released Wavering Radiant, which is a competent album from the group.

Wolves in the Throne Room released 2 albums this year, Malevolent Grain and Black Cascade.

Drudkh released the amazing album Microcosmos.

Overall a pretty good year for underground music for the most part. Some disappoints, but a lot of really surprising albums. You just have to know where to look.

 

[Idlemessiah]

New Sonata Arctica you say? This year just got better.

I'm totally with you on the Enter Shikari one, Common Dreads was fan-fucking-tastic (This coming from a HUUGGEEEE fan of ES). I have only just started to listen to Sonata Arctica but so far they are awesome.

The Days of Grays came out 2 or 3 months ago I think. Its pretty awesome. And whats more awesome is I'm going to see them in London next week!