AuditoryAppreciation: The Two Year Anniversary Post

Time flies, huh? This blog has hit year number two, and it's been a real fun time here. Ranting about music has been such a great catharsis for me, and this has been an outlet for a lot of my creative energy. As time went on, though, I knew this site wouldn't last. It was a great starting point, but slowly I realised there were certain things that this site just couldn't do for me.

So, in bittersweet fashion, I announce the end of auditoryappreciation.

This name has served me long enough, as a placeholder for a passion project that needed time to fully develop, an idea to bloom into fruition. This site too, has worked wonders as a place for me to put my words while I figure out how I want to make a better place for it. And we're there now.

Moving forward, auditoryappreciation will become quietless, and instead of using Blogspot, the new site is built from scratch. All existing posts have been transferred over, and updated to fit the format and style of the new site. This site will no longer be updated, but in the archival spirit, I will leave it as it is. But this will be the last post here.

I took extreme inspiration from Xisuma's blog, and with it most of his format, but from the beginning there were clear differences in what I wanted on my posts, and over time more things got added that didn't fit as well with what the platform could offer. Some posts had more tags than the platform would allow, the hyperlink system was too manual, the visual style just didn't really cut it and the mobile view was just bad. And as a computer science student, it's honestly ridiculous that it took this long to finally build a website for this, but it's done.

This isn't the only change for the anniversary. Head on over to the new site, I have a completely different write-up for that site's anniversary post, it's a whole lot of exciting stuff. This isn't a sad end in any way at all, it's just the start of the next era. It might be a new name, it might be a new look, but it's the same mind and the same kind of words. Welcome, for the first time yet back again, to quietless.net.

Song: Ghost Atlas - Lesser Gods [Dust of the Human Shape (2024), 2023]

Jesse Cash's solo project Ghost Atlas is something that I've half-listened to. I put on the full-length record All Is in Sync, and There's Nothing Left to Sing About a few years ago, but for some reason I only remember the first three tracks. I don't even count that album as one that I've heard, because I don't have any recollection of the other nine tracks.

But of course, I was excited to hear that he was releasing a new album. I may not have had to experience the full gruel of the six-year wait, but I still went "finally!" in my head as if I had been a longtime fan of his anyways. His work in ERRA is astounding to say the least, but he takes on a different sound and persona on this project.

The moment the song starts, I'm thrown right back into the sound and vibe of his previous record. He hasn't lost his touch at all, and it only sounds better and better. I've always loved how he can make simple instrumentation so captivating underneath his vocals, and the sound feels right at home for me.

His lyricism has always been formidable but a lot of the lines on this song stuck with me. The first verse is perfect, every single line is golden, especially with the last line and how he separates "progenitors to a future generation" from "of wounds", god, that hit so hard the first time around.

I can always count on Jesse to deliver some of the best vocal melodies and performances I've ever heard. The chorus is addicting, and that extended section is such a good follow-up. He has some tasteful cadences in the second verse that I kept going back to as well, it's all in the details but he nails it perfectly.

Making the bridge a 7/8 time signature section was a really fun choice, and he pulls off the subversion without any of the off-kilter weirdness. For someone who can push guitar technicality to its limits (see: Gungrave), he seems to be perfectly capable of the simple-but-effective riffwork as well, the guitar melody on this bridge accentuates the odd rhythm like you wouldn't believe.

Lesser Gods is only the first single for the album and I love it so much already. Despite having only a month to impress me before my year end list was finalised, it flew straight into 71st place (which is a feat considering how volumous my listening was for 2023). With any album, I hope for a deep cut to take the place of being my favourite over the singles, but I won't mind if Lesser Gods remains on top after the album releases. Hoping for a killer album though.

Rating: 4/5

Album: TesseracT - War Of Being [2023]

When the title track/first single for War Of Being came out, I remember being intrigued. I hadn't yet seen any other band take the progressive metal/djent genre as exploratively as Periphery had, but TesseracT pulled it off in a very different flavour. Where Periphery took the genre to new creative limits in very heavy fashion, TesseracT seemed to be the band that did it in a more artsy fashion, leaning closer to progressive rock stylings and letting ideas evolve and develop more within a song. Their riffs and melodies weren't overly fast-paced and chaotic as they tend to do in djent, but it was equally technical all the same, aiming for a more stable and sturdy display of mastery.

The actual album itself kept me on the fence for a long time. I remember the first few playthroughs left me grasping for anything to love about the album, knowing that there should be something to love about it, but I just couldn't put a finger on anything. I kept going back to the album again and again, knowing that some albums need a lot of time to grow on me, but even now I can't say I'm fully in love with it. There are some very obvious and easy things about this album that I'm happy to publicly commend, but I don't think it's become much of a favourite.

TesseracT definitely has a knack for this blend of progressive rock and metal that they have on their hands. They pull it off seamlessly on every song, building captivating passages of rhythmic prowess and melodic tastefulness. Very few moments are designed for shock value or impact, but all of them are well-built and musically intricate. They don't have a tendency to play fast or extremely heavy either (with the exception of some moments like The Grey's chorus), and a lot of the harsh vocals are used in a very textural way. It leaves way for a lot of nuances to develop in the drumming and for the guitarwork to hold space, which they do a lot. There aren't a lot of notes played and a lot of them are left to ring out and sustain in very interesting ways. Credit where it's due, they have some really good songwriting going on. I noticed they love to put in a groove section that's mostly sequencing of muted notes while the drummer does some wild polyrhythmic stuff in the background, not the most astounding but I love how meditative it is, reminds me of Animals As Leaders a bit.

I guess my main gripe with the album was that, for a long time, I had nothing too substantial to grab hold onto and say that I loved about the album. It wasn't an issue of underdeveloped ideas, no, it's pretty fully fleshed out as it is, but I couldn't seem to find a strong foothold on the listening experience. It was one of those albums that are great to let play in the background but I wouldn't end up remembering most of it. It was only after repeated playthroughs that I started getting familiar with some of their catchier songs and moments. For an album to take so long to actually find itself a place in my music consciousness is a bad sign.

Maybe it's just a matter of taste, I have no doubt that they are objectively a very good band pioneering their own sound, and they deserve all the success they have now and much more. But taste is most of what makes music special, and I will have to say it did not end up in my hall of fame. Which sounds like a damning sentence, but in reality it's still getting a pretty high rating, I just went into it thinking it would blow my mind a lot more. Expectations, huh. Solid work though, I had some favourites to cherrypick from this album and it was definitely unique, and a technical awe in every right.

Rating: 7/10

Tracklist:

1. Natural Disaster

2. Echoes

3. The Grey

4. Legion

5. Tender

6. War Of Being

7. Sirens

8. Burden

9. Sacrifice

Lyric Of The Week 102: Beyond the Pale

"Have we inherited the flaws of fumbling gods too small to stumble on their own?"

The Dear Hunter - Beyond the Pale, from the EP All Is as All Should Be

Song: Dance Gavin Dance - The Ghost of Billy Royalton [2023]

The Ghost of Billy Royalton evaded my confidence to write about it for a while. I don't usually find myself too attached to bands to feel the kind of parasocial grief and sadness that most fans do when someone has an untimely passing, but this song was so undeniably in tribute to Tim Feerick's life and the part he played in Dance Gavin Dance, I couldn't help but feel that secondhand bittersweet celebration of his legacy whenever I heard this song.

It is a great song, don't get me wrong. Songwriting alone, it's one of the best tracks they've put out in the past six years. The chorus is unbelievably divine, I haven't heard a Tilian/Jon vocal combo this perfect since the ending of Evaporate. I love that everyone got to say some words, it's been a while since Will threw down some bars in a Dance Gavin Dance song, and Andrew's part is just so touching that I think I teared up the first time I heard it. The instrumentation remains as unique as ever, Will cooks up some new sounds as well with whatever he's doing with pedals these days, and Matt's drumming is on point as always. Sergio taking over bass duties in Tim's absence, he does well in doing Tim's legacy justice.

I think the most heartwarming thing about this song is how they've decided, a year or so after Tim's sudden passing, that they've finally started on the road to healing from the grief and celebrating his life. The title of the song itself is probably an inside joke, but it's clear that it was written about Tim. The lyrics are bittersweet but they are positive, which is not a common thing for them to do. Not really sure what Tilian's lines on the chorus are about, though. It seems the most out of place, but maybe it's about the haters? They do talk a lot about the band in this song too, about keeping it going even after almost two decades of music.

I don't want to say that the tributary nature of this song is integral to its sound, but it's definitely a weight that is impossible to overlook. It's hard not to envision the passion in their voices when they're singing about someone that they lost like this, and it is an emotional experience at its core. It's always been a key aspect of the band that when they decide to tug at the heartstrings, they tug at it hard. The intensities of every part of the band just translate so vividly into emotional capacity.

I'm glad they put this song out, because it many ways it serves as closure for the band and the fans. And if not for anything else, isn't it a great way to be remembered, with an amazing song written by the people you used to take the stages with? It's great to see the band starting to move on and writing music again, and equipped with this new emotional heaviness (and new members), I'm definitely expecting them to sound a bit different for the next album. We're already seeing it with War Machine, but the next album cycle is about to come by soon given their usual two-year cycles, so I'm waiting to see what's new in store. Exciting.

Rating: 4.5/5

Album: Termina - Soul Elegy [2023]

Gotta be straight up with ya, I was surprised by how good this album was. I love Nik Nocturnal, don't get me wrong, I love his YouTube content, but I've been mostly indifferent to the solo music he puts out. Granted, a lot of the songs under the "Nik Nocturnal" name are for content anyways and made in a day or so, but with projects like NIK NXK, IKARI (ok not solo but still) and DEATHPHONK feeling quite meh to me, I wasn't expecting Soul Elegy to blow me away. (I also haven't heard Dysphoria so shhh.)

Nik has been a spearhead of the modern metal scene for longer than I've been a fan of it, and in recent years he's really been an influential person in what becomes popular and well-known in the scene. He's also very talented in his own right, and his charisma is evident on screen, but Soul Elegy is the first time I've seen his clear musical skill and forefront understanding of modern metal in full display. In arms with vocal extraordinaire Andy Cizek and drumming nightmare Chris Turner, they put together a surprisingly diverse set of eleven tracks covering many different sounds, with a wet dream's worth of guests to boot.

Anyone who's been following Nik for a while will not be shocked by what's in store. There's the mainstream metalcore track with big chorus, there's the dumb heavy one, there's the wonky electronic-infused metalcore banger, there's the sadboi post-hardcore-ish one, there's the production heavy cut that's also insanely heavy, there's the slightly more classic rock one and then there's the thall one. I love how subtly but clearly this album is an homage to the wonders of the modern metal scene, and they make the most perfect guest choices possible for all of them. Taylor Barber gets to rip on Inferno, Marcus Bridge kills the Northlane vibe on Bathed In Solitude, Phil Bozeman does demon stuff while Joshua Travis riffs like crazy on Parasocial, Sean Harmanis brings the feels on Blackwater, Kyle Anderson is monstrous on Erase You, instrumental behemoths Saxl Rose and Jason Richardson shred like the legends they are on Under Your Knife, and the father of thall Calle Thomer does his thing effortlessly on Wounded Masquerade with Ryo Kinoshita murdering on the vocals.

I know it sounds bad, but I really didn't expect this level of quality coming from Nik Nocturnal. I guess this is what happens when he actually spends more than a day on a song. Jokes aside, it doesn't shock me but it still amazes me that he is fully capable of matching the modern metal greats in writing. To be fair, he does have the best band members he could possibly have with him, but if I'm being honest, the guitarwork does stand out the most on this album for me. 

The vocals are a close second though, god bless Andy. Also of commendable internet fame before he started becoming the vocalist for like four different bands at the same time, he is definitely the most versatile vocalist out there. He can do beautiful cleans, insane screams, crazy highs, unbelievable lows, he can do it all. No doubt part of the reason they can be so diverse on this album is because Andy can comfortably match anything Nik gives him. If you can cover Dance Gavin Dance and heavy Spiritbox you can do just about anything.

Chris Turner's drumming is definitely not to be missed out either, I remember when Nik first said he got an android to do the drumming, I thought it was a joke about programmed drums, but nope, Chris Turner is just unbelievably on the grid. Besides, his work in Oceans Ate Alaska makes it clear that he has the knack for modern metal, with its demands for hyper-technical drumming, both in speed and rhythm concepts.

Soul Elegy is a modern metal paradise, basically. It may not be a masterpiece of one singular idea, but it is the coalesced spirit of the past few years of modern metal, and it is oh so beautiful. And if I'm allowed to be a bit corny, it does feel like a tribute to the modern metal community and how it has evolved over the years. The guestlist is definitely a consequence of how the digital age has changed the way we interact with the community and find new music, and the sounds in this album are definitely by-products of all the modern metal that Nik has played a big part in experiencing and influencing.

Sentiment aside, it's at its core a really good modern metal album. I kept finding myself going back to it for its great choruses, amazing guitarwork and simply satisfying breakdowns. Nik knows what he wants, and he made the best version of it for himself. Bangers, internet man. You wrote some bangers.

Rating: 8/10

Tracklist:

1. Translucent

2. Inferno (feat. Taylor Barber of Left to Suffer)

3. Everything//Nothing

4. Bathed In Solitude (feat. Marcus Bridge of Northlane)

5. Parasocial (feat. Phil Bozeman of Whitechapel and Joshua Travis of Emmure)

6. Blackwater (feat. Sean Harmanis of Make Them Suffer)

7. Take Flight

8. Inside My Walls

9. Erase You (feat. Kyle Anderson of Brand of Sacrifice)

10. Under Your Knife (feat. Saxl Rose and Jason Richardson)

11. Wounded Masquerade (feat. Calle Thomer of Vildhjarta and Ryo Kinoshita of Knosis)

Lyric Of The Week 101: Uncanny long arms

"Just admit it, you don’t have a world that you’re up against."

underscores - Uncanny long arms, from the album Wallsocket

Song: Rabbitology - Millie, Warm the Kettle (Dorm Demo) [2023]

Sometimes the Algorithm has its benefits. Rabbitology popped up on my Instagram feed of all places, but the snippet of Millie, Warm the Kettle sounded really cool (and let's be honest, the name is awesome). There was something quite mysterious about it all that beckoned my interest, and it grew on me pretty quickly.

This five-minute song evolves quite a bit throughout its runtime, and I love how definitively unreal it sounds. It's hard to put a finger on exactly what genre and sound this is: self-described as folktronica, it sounds like an eclectic blend of indie folk and art pop with varying influences and vibes. It sounds medieval, it sounds gothic, it sounds like the forest, it sounds like faeries (most of which Rabbitology has used to describe her own music). This unique sound that she's blended together is not revolutionary in principle, many of the elements have been seen before in the component genres, but I couldn't name a single other artist that sounds like her.

I love how intricate and complex the soundscape is, I love how articulated it feels and how cohesively surreal it is. It feels like magic (which does help to sell the branding of Rabbitology I suppose), and it feels so nuanced and well-versed. The 'Dorm Demo' tag almost feels like a joke, because it sounds amazing as it is. With the amount of layers and sound design this song has, it's hard to believe that it's just one person putting this together.

The vocals are more than perfect for this, it definitely has that magical timbre, one that sounds mysterious and has the tiniest tinge of sinister. The melody choices also hit it out of the park for me, they sound divine and very unorthodox. What really puts it all together though, are all the crazy harmonies and vocal layering that this song boasts. It sounds beautiful yet uncanny, and the sound design gives it a really strong fairytale feel. This song would fit perfectly as a soundtrack to some forest magic adventure game or movie, and it just has this unmistakable aura of fantasy. The lyricism is also in the same vein of magical and weird, I adore how she sequences and cuts up sentences to enhance the melodies, and every line is as mysteriously mythic as the rest.

The instrumentation plays an equally big part to the sound of the whole song, nothing overly complex but everything does its job perfectly. The percussion is strongly folk-based but the pacing is fast enough to invoke that adventurous feel, the guitars are mostly barebones but they are tonally on point, the synths and electronic elements aren't overpowering but they sit nicely in the background alongside everything else to spice up the sound design. God knows how much time she spends in the DAW to put this all together, much how less how much talent it takes to think of something like this.

In the grand scheme of things, Rabbitology is basically a newborn baby artist in the world of music. But that's the power of modern day social media, I suppose. You can discover the most specific artists that cater to your taste without waiting for years to gain traction and get popular before you finally hear of them. As of now, she's got three other dorm demos out on Spotify and they're all similarly delightful, but I'm keeping an eye out for the possibility of an album from her in the near future. It's got real potential to be a big favourite of mine.

Rating: 4/5