Mike
Tarpaulin Skin
Transition Engineer
I will cure the world of this plague of hope...
Posts: 247
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Post by Mike on Dec 26, 2008 14:55:56 GMT
All discussions, recriminations, blame, sobbing and verbal diarrhoea caused by "Urfe" to be interred hence...
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Post by Darkcrawl on Dec 31, 2008 0:42:26 GMT
I've only managed one continuous listen all the way through (the girlfriend stayed over a diverting 3 nights! :  but I can't wait to get back to it again with some sub-woofer intensity! I loved it, to be honest. In the worst possible way, of course. I don't want to give anything much away as I don't want to spoil it for those yet to receive theirs but I think the ambient turn is a good one and make the metal parts much....well....better as they are fewer. The story got a bit much in places (this is my own and only criticism) what with the bodily effluent and young-boy with bulldog face malarkey. But maybe disgusting me is what it's all about, eh? I thought a bit more unseen, supernatural horror would be more my cup of tea. Would storyline comparisons to Urotsukidoji in places be warranted??? I guess that is more Brooke's influence? Anyway, the final 15 mins of disc 2 is some of the finest stuff I've ever heard but I wouldn't dream of skipping the rest to get to it quicker. Awesome album(s) chaps, I bow to you again! |
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Post by Darkcrawl on Jan 1, 2009 22:46:00 GMT
The solo at the end seems to be gilmore/Floyd-esque. Something else I was not expecting.
also, I forgot to mention that Les did a great job with this. I didn't know what to expect but was worried it mght come accross a bit naff but I think he's the glue of the 2 discs and his performance was really impressive!
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Post by thanatos on Jan 3, 2009 13:19:30 GMT
My copy just plopped messily onto the doormat this morning. Will give my views after I've given it a good few spins tonight.
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Post by Dalihrob on Jan 3, 2009 14:06:32 GMT
Shipment of my album has been delayed to february, despite the fact I´ve pre-ordered album as soon as it was possible. So i fucked it up and downloaded the album, sorry. Well I listened to it at midnight with my headphones. I quickly found out that Urfe is an album that has to be listened as whole... I understand it as a superior "audiobok". Thanks to the great narration of Les I enjoyed several spine-chilling moments and the ambiance helped it a lot. I still can´t tell if the minimal involvement of metal parts is positive or negative thing. I dare to say that album would sound equally great without metal if not better, but I also adore the extraordinary style of metal you are able to play. Back to narration. it has become so strongly entwined to music that the non-english listener might have a big problem with enjoying the album. I will lately bring some echo of how are the czech listeners enjoying the album. Although I´m quite formidable english speaker I had a few difficulties with understanding what exactly is going on. Lately I´m going to add a few questions about the story, because it pisses me off that I´m not able to fully understand the Urfe horrible "adventure". But I hope this is going to fix itself with a few focused listens and insight into booklet etc. Well... Urfe is different and this is the strongest attribute of it. I WILL BREAK YOU!!!  |
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Post by ljosalfur on Jan 3, 2009 16:14:31 GMT
The album arrived on my doormat also today! Just trying to get my brain around it. Awesomely sick, scary stuff. I love it. Need to give it some more listens before I can talk in anymore detail. By the way necro.. you won't find any more insight in the booklet. hehe.
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Post by Darkcrawl on Jan 4, 2009 22:01:17 GMT
I repeat what I said about the cover art. It has the same effect as 'In the Nightside Eclipse' cover art in that I keep noticing more things the more I look at it. I put 'Urfe' on in my car as I left Chelmsford the other day and I had come to the end of the 2nd CD as I got into my driveway after 1.5 or so hours. An awesome drive round the M25 in the dark! I agree that the metal bits are very unique in The Axis's work and my preferred bits are when they supplement the ambience and join forces for some really intense scary atmospheres. However, disc 1 is fantastic and gives me the shivers at regular intervals. I'll be interested to see the reviews for this one. There's a positive German one online (I initially thought it was negative until my girlfriend translated bits of it) but I look forward to the ones that don't understand why. I wonder how long 'Tenements...' will be? 2 months I reckon after the delay of this one  I need another 6 months minimum to fully digest this hideous piece of sickness.  Edit- Being someone with gold/ginger hair myself, I'm very pleased to be so appallingly-regarded in the realm of Locus Eyrie. |
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Post by Darkcrawl on Jan 4, 2009 23:39:14 GMT
Shipment of my album has been delayed to february, despite the fact I´ve pre-ordered album as soon as it was possible. So i fucked it up and downloaded the album, sorry. Well I listened to it at midnight with my headphones. I quickly found out that Urfe is an album that has to be listened as whole... I understand it as a superior "audiobok". Thanks to the great narration of Les I enjoyed several spine-chilling moments and the ambiance helped it a lot. I still can´t tell if the minimal involvement of metal parts is positive or negative thing. I dare to say that album would sound equally great without metal if not better, but I also adore the extraordinary style of metal you are able to play. Back to narration. it has become so strongly entwined to music that the non-english listener might have a big problem with enjoying the album. I will lately bring some echo of how are the czech listeners enjoying the album. Although I´m quite formidable english speaker I had a few difficulties with understanding what exactly is going on. Lately I´m going to add a few questions about the story, because it pisses me off that I´m not able to fully understand the Urfe horrible "adventure". But I hope this is going to fix itself with a few focused listens and insight into booklet etc. Well... Urfe is different and this is the strongest attribute of it. I WILL BREAK YOU!!! My previous experience with Code666 gave me the idea I may get 'Urfe' (and the excellent Fen album) early if I preorder from them directly (as well as it being cheaper what with cutting out the middle-man). If you preorder through anyone but the label, it won't get to you before the OFFICIAL release date, no matter what. Go through Code666 next time, it's much better that way and you'll have nightmares much sooner! |
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Post by Dalihrob on Jan 5, 2009 4:36:25 GMT
Well I was lazy to fill-up my paypal account so I´ ve ordered through czech distributor...well, that was a mistake.
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Mike
Tarpaulin Skin
Transition Engineer
I will cure the world of this plague of hope...
Posts: 247
|
Post by Mike on Jan 5, 2009 17:56:57 GMT
The story got a bit much in places (this is my own and only criticism) what with the bodily effluent and young-boy with bulldog face malarkey. But maybe disgusting me is what it's all about, eh? The explicitness of some of the material was Les's call, really. Left to our own devices we would've almost certainly gone for something more indirectly suggestive, but shaking up our usual creative practices was part of the whole idea so we just let him run with it... |
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Post by Darkcrawl on Jan 8, 2009 22:59:46 GMT
The story got a bit much in places (this is my own and only criticism) what with the bodily effluent and young-boy with bulldog face malarkey. But maybe disgusting me is what it's all about, eh? The explicitness of some of the material was Les's call, really. Left to our own devices we would've almost certainly gone for something more indirectly suggestive, but shaking up our usual creative practices was part of the whole idea so we just let him run with it... Well that's fair enough. It's refreshing that he not only put in a stirling performance but also became absorbed in the concept too, most encouraging! I myself do prefer the more creepy, suggestive (ie. imagine the horror yourself if we give you a lead) scares in your music but I'm unjoying the album so much that it really isn't bugging me too much. By the way, I got thinking the other day. It'd be great if in the future, you guys did a continuation of where the lift goes at the end of 'Deleted Scenes...' or alternatively, after an absolute nightmare of an album, have a character bewildered asking where they are and make the last sound on the album the elevator from that disc. I think about these things way too much.  |
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Post by ljosalfur on Jan 9, 2009 13:06:29 GMT
This album is growing on me like some form of horrific fungal bacteria. I love the explicitness of the narration. It is mixed perfectly with the more philosophical interesting parts. Nowadays explicitness such as the stuff on this album is the only thing that truely scares and shocks. The 'creepy', suggestive stuff has been done over and over. I LOVE how Urfe is so.... Human?
As far as the music goes. I'm loving the ambience, the changes in moods are brilliant. There are parts which get so dense, and then beautiful, and dare I say it, 'hopeful' parts. I love the guitar and piano track near the beginning. As far as the metal parts go, I was put off at first by the amount of clean singing, but i've decided it fits nicely now, and makes the more screamy vocals that come later even more powerful. My ONE complaint is, that it seems, especially on headphones, that the metal parts come in a little to quietly in comparison to the MASSIVE sounding ambience. Interesting.
I am VERY much interested in what the metal press will make of this. Its definitely a risky, but brave album to make. It really does need to be thought of as a soundtrack rather than a collection of songs. I await reviews of this thing with baited breath!
Anyway, must get back to listening to this thing. Its blowing my mind in new ways every time!
Oh, one other thing. Who are what are these 'Kalifoths' that keep being mentioned. Is it just a made up mythical character? If so congratulations on an awesomely cool word that creates some perfect imagery.! I've looked it up on the net and all I get is the PulseFear song called 'Mass Of The Kalifoth'.
Luke 'Ljosalfur' Lehane. Primitive Graven Image.
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Post by necrotising on Jan 9, 2009 20:13:38 GMT
I gotta say I'm a little disappointed. The expectations were too high though so it was inevitable, I guess. Some of my issues:
- Synesthesia and the effect of seeing the cover of the album before actually listening to it. I can't see the "Axis colors" (brown and black mostly) no matter what. Not really the album's fault.
- Les's voice is ok, but few parts of his monologue annoy me. Might as well be the problem with the "lyrics". Examples include: "I run, I run as I've never run before" or: "and again... and again... and again!". I'd be really interested in hearing the album with narration from Brooke instead of Les. Might as well help increase the "Axis feel" which I miss in most of it.
- I can hear the influences, I can't hear the Axis. And this causes another problem, I'm unable to see the album as one entity. When I repeat the album in my head, it's not like: "the ambient beginning, then they played this and that, some more ambience, metal bits, ...", it's more like: "ambient, Badalamenti, ambient, Throbing Gristle, ambient, ambient, Esoteric, ...". And this causes another problem (here we go again), 3 listens to the whole album and it already couldn't surprise me, I knew exactly what was going to be next.
And that's it. I haven't really tried to follow the story yet (I'm more interested in the sound itself in music) so can't comment on that.
My final verdict: When broken into pieces, it's great. But it doesn't work as a whole. At least not for me. The Axis feel is missing. Enjoyable nonetheless.
8/10
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Mike
Tarpaulin Skin
Transition Engineer
I will cure the world of this plague of hope...
Posts: 247
|
Post by Mike on Jan 12, 2009 17:47:55 GMT
I can hear the influences, I can't hear the Axis. It's probably because I'm on the inside looking out, but I can't wrap my head around the idea that "Urfe" is missing the Axis "feeling". I think the basis for "Urfe" is clearly visible from "Ichneumon" onwards; "Forms On The Other Side Of Silence", "Disturbance In The Perpetual Screen" and "Heaving Salvation..." cover 95% of the ground we cover in "Urfe" already. We just examined those areas of our sound more closely; our particular approach to dissonance and texture are as disciplined here as always. I think if anything, we're closer to communicating the Axis feeling that we feel as creators, than we've ever been. I can understand why the artwork might make it feel fundamentally different to what's gone before, but we felt it was time for to shake things up a little on that front. I'm not being defensive or grumpy by the way, the comment just took me by surprise and I don't really understand... |
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Post by Darkcrawl on Jan 12, 2009 21:25:41 GMT
I can hear the influences, I can't hear the Axis. It's probably because I'm on the inside looking out, but I can't wrap my head around the idea that "Urfe" is missing the Axis "feeling". I think the basis for "Urfe" is clearly visible from "Ichneumon" onwards; "Forms On The Other Side Of Silence", "Disturbance In The Perpetual Screen" and "Heaving Salvation..." cover 95% of the ground we cover in "Urfe" already. We just examined those areas of our sound more closely; our particular approach to dissonance and texture are as disciplined here as always. I think if anything, we're closer to communicating the Axis feeling that we feel as creators, than we've ever been. I can understand why the artwork might make it feel fundamentally different to what's gone before, but we felt it was time for to shake things up a little on that front. I'm not being defensive or grumpy by the way, the comment just took me by surprise and I don't really understand... I certainly here similarities to 'Heaving Salvation...' at times on Urfe. As HSITPOR is one of my favourite Axis tracks, I was quite happy with that! |
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but I can't wait to get back to it again with some sub-woofer intensity! I loved it, to be honest. In the worst possible way, of course. I don't want to give anything much away as I don't want to spoil it for those yet to receive theirs but I think the ambient turn is a good one and make the metal parts much....well....better as they are fewer. The story got a bit much in places (this is my own and only criticism) what with the bodily effluent and young-boy with bulldog face malarkey. But maybe disgusting me is what it's all about, eh? I thought a bit more unseen, supernatural horror would be more my cup of tea. Would storyline comparisons to Urotsukidoji in places be warranted??? I guess that is more Brooke's influence?
I need another 6 months minimum to fully digest this hideous piece of sickness. 
