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PaperclipPerfector  13hr ago (text post)   594 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for August 14, 2026

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What are you all listening to these days?

Orville Peck has a new album and the newest single dropped this morning. I love how rich the instrumentals are. It almost reminds me of old Motown or Stax recordings.

One of the most famous lines from Nick Hornby's High Fidelity is (I'm paraphrasing) "Which came first: the music or the misery? Do I listen to pop music because I'm miserable, or am I miserable because I listen to pop music?"

For many years I was an avid listener of music, and would constantly have my headphones on during my morning commute. I owned dozens of CDs and went out of my way to convert them to FLAC format, under the delusion that I could tell the difference from MP3s with my budget Sennheisers. When I read the above question in High Fidelity, I dismissed it as an obviously rhetorical one: of course I listen to music because I'm miserable!

Somewhere along the way I got out of the habit of actively listening to music in my own time, and rarely sit down to listen to an album from start to finish: most music I listen to is just something to put on in the background while I'm doing something else. And you know what? My subjective feeling of ease and well-being is dramatically improved compared to the earlier periods of my life in which I was an active and compulsive listener of music. There are many possible explanations for this improvement (I'm more physically active; I'm in a stable relationship; I've outgrown my depression; the period in my life in which I listened to music most compulsively was my adolescence, never an easy time for anyone), but I no longer think the question from High Fidelity is a rhetorical one with an obvious answer. Maybe listening to music did make me unhappier than I would have been otherwise.

All that preamble aside, I'm trying to get back into the habit of actively listening to music – not for the sake of enjoyment, but for research. I've been trying to write my next album and the riffs aren't coming as easily as I'd like. Surely part of that is because I'm not listening to music: the periods in my life in which I wrote the most riffs were also the periods in which I was listening to the most riffs. To that end, I drew up a list of albums which I've either been meaning to listen to for years, or which have a sound I'd like to emulate on the next album. I've been listening to them when I can get around to it. In no particular order, here are the ones I've listened to so far, and my thoughts.

Artist Album Genre Thoughts
Ulver Silence Teaches You How to Sing Dark ambient I encountered this as excerpts from it
were used in the film "Sinister". It only really
works in context, not as a standalone piece.
Ulver Bergtatt – Et eeventyr i 5 capitler Black metal There are a million bargain-bin second-wave
black metal albums just like this one.
Botanist Photosynthesis Black metal Legitimately unique. Intend to listen to it again
Accurst Fragments of a Nightmare Dark ambient I turned it off after the first five minutes. Corny af.
Aghast Hexerei Im Zwielicht Der Finsternis Dark ambient A track from this was also used in the film "Sinister".
Unlike the Ulver one, this one can stand on its own.
Particularly liked the fourth track.
Katatonia Brave Murder Day Doom metal The fifth track is pretty cool,
but I have no intention of listening to this one again.
Shining V: Halmstad Black metal Profoundly silly. Barely even warrants the "black metal"
genre tag, never mind "depressive/suicidal black metal".
The vocalist supposedly said that he wants people
to be so affected by his band's music
that they kill themselves after listening to it
– I certainly would if I had to listen to
boring corny dreck like this for the rest of my life.
The cover art is the most interesting thing about it
Killswitch Engage The End of Heartache Metalcore Great album, on the level of "Alive
or Just Breathing", even if I prefer Jesse Leach as a vocalist.
Thantifaxath Sacred White Noise Black metal There used to be a website called Metal Ireland,
which was both a forum and published reviews of albums and EPs.
One of their critics reviewed this album
and said something along the lines of
"I know as critics we're meant to be 'objective'.
But it's hard in this case, because
this album is pretty close to the Platonic ideal
of what a black metal album is supposed to sound like".
I finally got around to listening to it
(twelve years after release) and wasn't disappointed.
Jaw-droppingly brilliant.
Daughters You Won't Get What You Want Noise rock Contra Fantano, I don't know if I'd call this "perfect",
but even as someone who normally disdains noise rock
and spoken-word vocals I can say it didn't disappoint.
Corrupted Paso inferior Sludge Pretty good, but hardly memorable.
Eyehategod Take as Needed for Pain Sludge I like the sound collage, and the tenth song.
Gnaw Their Tongues All the Dread Magnificence of Perversity Black metal I first heard of Gnaw Their Tongues
when a recording engineer compared my band to them.
They collaborated with Dragged into Sunlight (immediately below)
on an EP which included samples of actual serial killers talking about their crimes.
It creeped me out, but I wasn't sure of how much of that
was because of the music and how much was the enormously tasteless sampling.
This album employs no such gimmicks, and I can say that Gnaw Their Tongues can produce some genuinely horrific soundscapes.
Dragged into Sunlight Hatred for Mankind Death-doom I really liked it. I should listen to it again.
Isis Panopticon Post-metal Meh. I once heard someone quip that if a band
describes their music as "post-[anything]", that means it's boring.
While this isn't true of every band, it's true more often than not, and certainly true of Isis.
Mastodon Leviathan Sludge Its reputation is entirely deserved.
Meshuggah Chaosphere Progressive metal Great, perhaps even better than ObZen. Buy it
Portal ION Death metal Loved it. All the compositional insanity of "Swarth",
but with production improved just enough that you can follow what's going on.
Spectral Wound Songs of Blood and Mire Black metal Heard this album playing in a record shop in Athens
and decided to check it out. Loved it.
The Angelic Process Weighing Souls with Sand Drone metal Meh, did nothing for me. Getting signed to
Profound Lore Records is now considered a hallmark of quality,
but this was back when they were still finding their feet as a label and couldn't afford to be so choosy.
My Dying Bride The Dreadful Hours Doom metal Rather corny
Cryptopsy None So Vile Death metal Pretty cool, but so technical and complex
that your brain can't really process it all in one go.
Type O Negative World Coming Down Gothic metal More of the same. "Slow, Deep and Hard"
had more stylistic range.

“Which came first: the shitty rave music, or the drugs?”

Henry's contempt is so real. I saw a post earlier joking that, with AI "musicians" now becoming a thing, DJs must feel so relieved that there's someone even they can feel superior to.

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