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Молчат Дома - Этажи

You may be wondering, 'Is the band Молчат Дома, who created the album, Этажи, a foreign band?' and 'Are they going to be singing some non-english language, perhaps Russian?' The answer to both of these questions is yes. I can't remember how I found this album originally, but one day it came up in my YouTube recommended, I instantly recognized the cover, and decided to give it a listen. It was really good. It reminded of me listening to Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures for the first time. Note: In this review, I italicize Russian words written in the Roman alphabet, put "quotation marks" around English translations, and do nothing to Russian words written in the Cyrillic alphabet. Молчат Дома or Molchat Doma (roughly translates to "The Houses are Silent") is a 'cold wave' band. This is a genre of music that I don't know too much about, but from what I understand the genre is close to goth, except more detached and minimalistic. Si...

Opeth - Blackwater Park

The last few bands I've reviewed were somewhat obscure, but the next album I picked, "Blackwater Park" is by a famous progressive death metal band, Opeth. Progressive or prog metal is a very hard genre to define since it describes a certain sound that the music has. Prog is often marked by complicated riffs and solos, sudden changes in the melody, and weird, often changing timings and rhythms that give the listener a feeling like they are falling into the music, but I'd really recommend just listening to some prog, because this description doesn't quite do the genre justice. One thing I really like is when a band picks a cover for an album that gives you a good idea what the music is going to sound like, and this album does just that. The picture appears to be of a dark foggy swamp with what appears to be human forms in the background, obscured by the fog. The album cover looks dark and gloomy, and t...

Crumb - Jinx

Jinx is the first, and only, full length album by the band Crumb. It caught my eye, or rather ear, late last year while I was searching for music on YouTube. What makes this album appeal to me so much is its unique blend of trip-hop and neo-psychedelia. Trip-hop is a genre of music, popularized by the band Portishead, that is the gloomy goth child of hip-hop and electronica. It is basically what you get when you take a hip-hop beat, add spooky singing, and add filters and sound effects to make it sound uncanny and retro. Neo-psychedalia, as the name suggests, is a modernized version of psychedelic rock. Electronic and dance elements are often added added, along with falsetto vocals and a more dreamy sound. Some examples of neo-psychedellic bands are The Flaming Lips, MGMT, and Tame Impala. The result of combining these two genres is this laid back, spooky, spiritual sound. It's like you just died and are a ghost in a graveyard, but you are kinda okay with it, and are ...

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