Agreed. The audio is always top notch, the interviews/questions/banter often enjoyable, and they always have a great selection of bands/musicians. I watch some similar kinds of things (like you...
Agreed. The audio is always top notch, the interviews/questions/banter often enjoyable, and they always have a great selection of bands/musicians. I watch some similar kinds of things (like you said with Tiny Desk), as well as Audiotree, The Current, and others, but yeah KEXP is maybe the best in the game at the moment
The first time I watched this video, I thought my video was just really slow to buffer. Then I realized they purposefully uploaded it looking compressed to hell and had a good laugh. I wasn’t...
The first time I watched this video, I thought my video was just really slow to buffer. Then I realized they purposefully uploaded it looking compressed to hell and had a good laugh.
I wasn’t familiar with Worm before their KEXP appearance but I enjoyed the first track (and then promptly got distracted). I’ll have to hop back into this recording soon, they sounded great live!
They have pivoted and are extremely different than before. So if you go to any of their back catalogue, prepare to think it's a different band entirely. They were black/death/doom for most of...
They have pivoted and are extremely different than before. So if you go to any of their back catalogue, prepare to think it's a different band entirely. They were black/death/doom for most of their career and while they played with the aesthetics of 90s symphoblack a bit on merch, never really did musically. They took a bit of a hard turn into symphoblack with Necropalace sonically. If you're into death/doom/adjacent though, definitely worth checking out the other stuff like Foreverglade and Bluenothing.
There's a bit of a "metal bands pivoting towards cheesy symphoblack" going on, I don't know exactly why. I don't know if it's to ride a revival wave of popularity in the metal scene or what. I know the metalheads I talk with all the time are split on it. I don't know how to feel about it personally, just as a fan but I lean towards just not enjoying it. I guess I'm not always against bands doing a bit of nostalgia-bait as a general rule, but I never seem to like it when it happen- or at least, it tends to feel like a "fall off" or a step down for the bands that do it. When it feels so different than their previous work I am skeptical and often find the quality is lower overall- and it just feels weird to do this pivoting to something that almost sounds like a completely different band or having a completely different visual aesthetic.
From a musical standpoint I think Worm's back catalogue is far stronger and stands out as more unique than the new stuff. They always had their own very specific take on death/doom, but with the symphoblack it just doesn't have that unique character. Necroplace isn't unlistenable by any means, and I think it's mostly rescued by Phil Tougas' incredible guitar solos (though there are far better projects that feature Tougas' guitarwork or are Tougas himself, like Exxul and Zeicrydeus, among others).
Stormkeep (whom I loved, have vinyl of, etc) also did a pivot from a triumphant, refined but underground melodic black metal to their latest record which takes a hard turn into symphoblack, especially in the aesthetics and I think fails in the process. To me Stormkeep basically "ended" with their previous record because they feel so unrecognizable to me now.
More power to the people that love the current iterations of these bands, though of course, and as always, bands should feel free to experiment and do whatever they want.
And I love that KEXP is featuring bands like these, regardless.
Noted, thanks! I can appreciate a band’s sound evolving over time so I’m looking forward to seeing the before and after. I usually don’t lean doom/sludge unless we get into the super heavy and...
Noted, thanks! I can appreciate a band’s sound evolving over time so I’m looking forward to seeing the before and after. I usually don’t lean doom/sludge unless we get into the super heavy and slow, like more funeral doom adjacent. My black metal preference is all over the place. It usually suffices to say that I err more towards atmoblack or blackgaze but there are standouts in every subgenre so I’ll definitely be checking up on all the names you mentioned. I appreciate your comments in this space; I always feel like I walk away with a new page in my back catalogue :)
Goddamn I love KEXP so fucking much. One of the great modern music institutions, alongside NPR's Tiny Desk series.
Agreed. The audio is always top notch, the interviews/questions/banter often enjoyable, and they always have a great selection of bands/musicians. I watch some similar kinds of things (like you said with Tiny Desk), as well as Audiotree, The Current, and others, but yeah KEXP is maybe the best in the game at the moment
The first time I watched this video, I thought my video was just really slow to buffer. Then I realized they purposefully uploaded it looking compressed to hell and had a good laugh.
I wasn’t familiar with Worm before their KEXP appearance but I enjoyed the first track (and then promptly got distracted). I’ll have to hop back into this recording soon, they sounded great live!
They have pivoted and are extremely different than before. So if you go to any of their back catalogue, prepare to think it's a different band entirely. They were black/death/doom for most of their career and while they played with the aesthetics of 90s symphoblack a bit on merch, never really did musically. They took a bit of a hard turn into symphoblack with Necropalace sonically. If you're into death/doom/adjacent though, definitely worth checking out the other stuff like Foreverglade and Bluenothing.
There's a bit of a "metal bands pivoting towards cheesy symphoblack" going on, I don't know exactly why. I don't know if it's to ride a revival wave of popularity in the metal scene or what. I know the metalheads I talk with all the time are split on it. I don't know how to feel about it personally, just as a fan but I lean towards just not enjoying it. I guess I'm not always against bands doing a bit of nostalgia-bait as a general rule, but I never seem to like it when it happen- or at least, it tends to feel like a "fall off" or a step down for the bands that do it. When it feels so different than their previous work I am skeptical and often find the quality is lower overall- and it just feels weird to do this pivoting to something that almost sounds like a completely different band or having a completely different visual aesthetic.
From a musical standpoint I think Worm's back catalogue is far stronger and stands out as more unique than the new stuff. They always had their own very specific take on death/doom, but with the symphoblack it just doesn't have that unique character. Necroplace isn't unlistenable by any means, and I think it's mostly rescued by Phil Tougas' incredible guitar solos (though there are far better projects that feature Tougas' guitarwork or are Tougas himself, like Exxul and Zeicrydeus, among others).
Stormkeep (whom I loved, have vinyl of, etc) also did a pivot from a triumphant, refined but underground melodic black metal to their latest record which takes a hard turn into symphoblack, especially in the aesthetics and I think fails in the process. To me Stormkeep basically "ended" with their previous record because they feel so unrecognizable to me now.
More power to the people that love the current iterations of these bands, though of course, and as always, bands should feel free to experiment and do whatever they want.
And I love that KEXP is featuring bands like these, regardless.
Noted, thanks! I can appreciate a band’s sound evolving over time so I’m looking forward to seeing the before and after. I usually don’t lean doom/sludge unless we get into the super heavy and slow, like more funeral doom adjacent. My black metal preference is all over the place. It usually suffices to say that I err more towards atmoblack or blackgaze but there are standouts in every subgenre so I’ll definitely be checking up on all the names you mentioned. I appreciate your comments in this space; I always feel like I walk away with a new page in my back catalogue :)