I loved ATS and the way the whole album was like a movie or a story. But personally, I loved some of the new approaches they took on Living Things. So I'd have to say LT>ATS
There is tons of objectivity in music. The only thing that's subjective is what people find enjoyable.
I;m not gonna get into an argument since I argue this all the time and it gets old. But I completely disagree.
Travz is right, tbh. There are plenty of musical right and wrongs. There is a wrong way to write a ballad or pop song or a wrong way to play Spanish guitar. It's just that nobody here ever argues about actual objectivity of the music presented. They argue about what they prefer more than the other and don't know why others think the way that they do
I'm just gonna say I disagree. If I like BTH more than The Catalyst who is to tell me the catalyst is better? It's all opinions
@travz21: No real rebuttal then. As it has been said, yes, ATS is more of a concept album with a strong theme throughout. However, an album is not better just because it's a concept album because in the end, the individual songs are what matter. I don't see how the structures are any less varied. Powerless has a minute long intro called Tinfoil. Castle of Glass's structure is nothing like Skin to Bone, Roads Untravelled, etc. Each song is pretty distinct in sound. Lost in the Echo, Lies Greed Misery, Victimized and Until It Breaks all feature singing and rapping but they don't sound anything alike. You saying LT is a 'collection of singles' is you being subjective.
I'll Be Gone, Burn it Down, and In My Remains are all very similar songs with the only appreciable difference being who's singing what in the bridge. Castle of Glass isn't all that different either other than Mike taking the lead on vocals. Roads Untraveled and Powerless share key similarities like a piano-led instrumental with guitars coming in around the last third of the song. Try again. The only songs that stray from verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus are pretty Until it Breaks and Vicitmized. There's hardly any sections that just let the music carry the song. Tell me that this isn't a collection of singles again.
Wow. I love A Thousand Suns and still consider it their best, but looks like it made some people here think it's bad thing for a rock band to have similar sounding songs in an album. That's the way it's always been in every rock band ever. I think there's enough variety on LT.
Why bother recording an album if you're just gonna pump it full of similar songs? You already have the one song you wanted to write. Save yourself the effort and just release a single and be done with it. This album is nowhere near as bad as Meteora, but this band prided itself on not writing the same song over and over with some negligible differences.
The first 3 songs you mentioned share the same structure. Where are the synths in IMR? Where's the rapping in IMR or IBG? Yes, they're not as experimental as ATS songs but let's not pretend ATS had very experimental song structures on many of its songs either. Castle of Glass has a very folk-inspired melody and vocals, you heard a LP song like that before? Didn't think so. Has there been many LP songs where Mike and Chester have sung the whole thing in harmony? Your point about RU and Powerless, guess what else is piano-led with guitars coming in later? BiTS and Iridescent. Try harder. Also, LOL at the suggestion that any song that follows that format is a single.
Bullfuckingshit. This band: [video=youtube;2pMM4iwC-ag]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pMM4iwC-ag[/video] Is infinitely better than this band: [video=youtube;XcJU6zsNWyM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcJU6zsNWyM[/video] By every metric possible. Singing ability, composition, legacy, sales, critical acclaim. They're in the fucking song. Right there! In the introduction and the verses. Are you deaf? Woo, Mike raps eight cheesy, unimpressive bars that wouldn't sound all too different if he actually sang them. There's a difference between Mike's rapping on that song and, say, Lies Greed Misery. Both are bad, but LGM actually sounds like it was written to be rapped. The short clauses and monosyllabic rhyme scheme in BID would've serviced the song better if it was sung. You can't straight up sing something like N.Y. State of Mind. It wasn't dominated by one, though. Whoopdie-do, Roads Untraveled and Skin to Bone also did the same folk thing and they're on the same damn album. That's almost three consecutive songs having the same style of singing. You honestly are deaf. You can clearly hear guitars in the verses to Burning in the Skies. FFS, I don't even have the songs in FLAC and I hear them perfectly. I have to assume you're interpreting "writing the same song over and over again" literally. Like they put two copies of Crawling on the same disc.
^he doesn't seem happy. I know people who like Theory of a Deadman. What if it's that person's favorite band? then obviously they think they are better than Queen. And it's the same with genre. I have friends who's favorite genre is Country. I, for one, hate most country. But who's to say one genre is better than the other. I prefer rock, and I think it's better. But other people disagree. and we can't say one is technically better than the other. It comes down to opinion.
BID is a song dominated entirely by synths. A 5 second intro is not even close to being the same thing. The BID synths are mainly in the chorus, which IMR doesn't have. Subjectivity, ladies and gentlemen. Wasn't it? BITS is pretty close to that structure, the only difference being a short outro. I don't see how WTCFM diverges from that format. WTFE has a rap intro but the rest is pretty much verse chorus verse chorus bridge chorus. Putting the same rap from the beginning on top of the last chorus doesn't make it any more exciting. W&K is also the same, inserting a speech segment does not an interesting song make. Iridescent only differs somewhat in repeating the chorus twice at one point, not a very experimental change there. Robot Boy, Blackout and The Catalyst are the only ones that dare to differ from that format too much. Still, 6 out of the 9 full songs follow a very similar format, which in itself doesn't differ from the 'conventional' format much, if any. The Catalyst, Blackout, Robot Boy all feature singing on synths and they're on the same damn album too. WTFE, Robot Boy, BitS, and Iridescent also all feature the same style of soft singing. Wrong call on BiTS. Still, the guitar doesn't kick in prominently until the bridge. Plus, there are other songs that share key similarities. W&K and WTCFM both start with grungy synths followed by aggressive rapping and aggresive vocals by Chester. Rinse and repeat. The only difference is the outro for each, but even both of those feature speech segments. You pointed out two similar songs and I've done the same.
Yes, there are totally people who have Theory of a Deadman backpacks. Theory of a Deadman posters adorn their room. Their notebooks are littered with different Theory of a Deadman logos. People can identify every member of Theory of a Deadman by silhouette. Theory of a Deadman members find their names at the top of every music-ranking list.
so? It's all opinion. all those "lists" are opinions from people. Professional reviewers are just another human being. nothing special about them. And Theory of a deadman fans are crazy so the backpack, posters, notebooks is true about them
You know what. Screw it. I'm done. I don't have the patience to analyze your entire post, Shadster, to prove to you exactly why you're wrong and that you've resorted to flat out lying. FFS, Chester has no aggressive vocals on WTCFM. Middle-Eastern-style melisma is not aggressive. I'm not even gonna address the rest. I'm just gonna say this. Which album has power chords in every song? Living Things. Which album is dominated by a strict verse-chorus-verse-chorus structure? Living Things. Which album has the more narrow scope? Living Things.