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This is, dare I say, the best chip metal album I've ever heard.
Mind-boggling composition. Solid vocals. Fantastic work.
BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD.
This is one of the best metal albums I've heard chip or not!
Taken by themselves, the tunes and vocals are pretty good. I don't think they mixed as well as one would have hoped. Honestly, I was kinda digging the heavy NES sounds, but every time the vocals would come in I'd just start laughing at how rather... well, silly it sounded. Don't get me wrong, it's a pretty good album, but I don't think the mix of NES with screaming sounds dark and metal-ey.
Thanks for the joy though! The last few tunes which didn't have any vocals were certainly more my style, and I'll keep the album around for that reason.
I disagree. The vocals where the cherry on top for me and, aside from being very good, complemented the tracks well. I've said this elsewhere before, but the proggy metal compositions sound great with NES instruments, and those kind of vocals go well with proggy metal. Certainly better than hairspray style squeals.
Well, the modules are also included, so you should be fine either way 
Taken by themselves, the tunes and vocals are pretty good. I don't think they mixed as well as one would have hoped. Honestly, I was kinda digging the heavy NES sounds, but every time the vocals would come in I'd just start laughing at how rather... well, silly it sounded. Don't get me wrong, it's a pretty good album, but I don't think the mix of NES with screaming sounds dark and metal-ey.
Thanks for the joy though! The last few tunes which didn't have any vocals were certainly more my style, and I'll keep the album around for that reason.
This.
I'm a big metal fan and certainly get what this is all about. I was really looking forward to this having been exposed to chip through the likes of Baseck, Dispyz, Unas and Overthruster. The programming here is absolute pro-status, and the vocals are good, well-rounded metal vocals. On their own the two are great but when you have metal vocals over an NES the results are, well, really lame and come off as a curious novelty.
Ok I'll be honest here: it's fucking ridiculous and ruin potential for a perfectly good chip *or* metal album. I'm not singling you out either, I've told Baseck the same in the past. A+ for effort and execution but angry metal vocals on chip music will always sound like joke music to me.
Sorry if I've unleashed a storm of negative criticism Norrin Radd, but if you or someone else manages to pull off chip-metal well I'll be impressed in the extreme. They are very VERY hard to mix, IMO. You have my deep respect for even trying to pull this off.
I couldn't disagree with you two more, but not everyone's going to feel the same way on something, so whatever. This is a landmark release, for sure.
Funny how me essentially giving it an A+ is quickly overlooked because I said it sounds like joke music to *me*.
It's for some yes, but to *me* these two styles will never sound 100% legit until non-synthesized drums are used, and the nes sample kicks just don't move any air. Not the artist's fault, it's just the way it is.
No one's even had time to overlook that, you said it like three posts up. I was just saying I disagree about them not meshing well.
A good number of things about metal isolated sound silly out of context. I enjoyed the release though!
No one's even had time to overlook that, you said it like three posts up. I was just saying I disagree about them not meshing well.
Sorry Moldilox, I was referring to this line from arfink: "Sorry if I've unleashed a storm of negative criticism Norrin Radd...".
Actually, I really enjoy hearing people's opinions on the vocals and album's concept, especially if they are intelligently explained like I've seen displayed here.
I can't help but agree with you guys when you say these two things don't go together. I know from experience how hard it was to even attempt to put them together. That's pretty much what led to me making the vocals in DPCM format in the first place. Normal vocals over top of the NES chiptune would have sounded hilarious. The only way to put them on the same level as the music was to drag them through the NES hardware as well.
To be sure, this entire album started out as an experiment in how far I could take the NES sound, and I definitely understand when people don't really agree with the sound. But this album should also not be taken as seriously as a typical death metal album. Almost all of the lyrics are about cosmological phenomenon, or the misinterpretation of, with two humongous Star Trek TNG references. So if you find the combo of the angry vocals and the chip sound to be comical, that kind of works for me as well ^_^.
In any case, I really appreciate your guys honesty and thoughts on the album, positive or Negative.
Sorry if I've unleashed a storm of negative criticism
Just wanted to add that I'm actually very happy to see some actual criticism happening, and even (gasp!) honest opinions, even when they're negative. That's how this site should be, it's refreshing after everyone who voiced something negative got attacked by rabid pokemons on 8bc.
Moldilox wrote:No one's even had time to overlook that, you said it like three posts up. I was just saying I disagree about them not meshing well.
Sorry Moldilox, I was referring to this line from arfink: "Sorry if I've unleashed a storm of negative criticism Norrin Radd...".
No worries, dude. I should have guessed that's what it was referring to!
Whether or not I agree with something it's nice to hear different thoughts on the album and how it works as a whole, too.
And yes, the Trek references were quite worthwhile. I caught the four lights reference and then had to listen more closely to see what kind of insanity was afoot.
And thanks for the compliments on my criticism, though doing this makes me slightly uneasy as I haven't ever released any music myself. Someday I hope to be on the receiving end of some of this, and I look forward to it.
Last edited by arfink (Apr 16, 2010 7:58 pm)
Normal vocals over NES would have been really weird
But doing them via DPCM makes them fit, and they sound totally br00tal
I would love to hear what they think, from a metal head point of view.
Its fucking legit dude, you've nothing to worry about. More than anything it reminds me very much of my buddy: www.myspace.com/aloathingrequiem
Yall two should tour so I can play drums for both