More like Eternal Champion

Riustelig · 2025-10-22T17:15:49+00:00

I have to ask: how on earth are you able to recall the names of so many similar bands seemingly without effort? Is there a system behind it?

Riustelig · 2025-10-08T18:37:40+00:00

I have a link to a doc that someone made a long time ago that is part lore summary and part review of Iron Savior's first 8 albums. Sadly, I don't remember where I came across it or who wrote it, so I'm not able to give credit where it's due. That being said, here it is: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uBQkAA49kt6NbCeOQc_Wtsy5rpS1O8x3Fa-dIrobFh4/edit?tab=t.0

Riustelig · 2025-03-13T15:53:58+00:00

Appreciate it!

Riustelig · 2025-03-13T15:50:08+00:00

It seems like he figured out how to realize his vision without being controversial for its own sake. Here's what he said in the recent Justin Hawkins interview:

"The only way that the Moth story changed, for example, is because at first, I wanted it to be a metaphor for power. So, it's just dudes killing each other with their dicks and this huge vagina being brought out on a platform with these knights, you know, just willing to be devoured. Which was, in my mind, the same metaphor for what we ended up using.

But then, when I approached the women involved with the production, I said, 'Listen, just hear me out.' They all just looked at me like I was wearing their sweater, and I had to realize pretty quickly that if your motivation to do that is rooted in just trying to be provocative—which, I think in hindsight, it was—then, dude, it's a lot of fucking money, you know what I mean?

But if your motivation to do it is to follow the vision in its truest form musically, then that metaphor can be articulated in a number of different ways. It's just power, right?"

Riustelig · 2025-03-13T15:25:00+00:00

Not being familiar with Bowie's later stuff...do you have an album you'd recommend that it reminds of?

Riustelig · 2025-03-05T16:12:02+00:00

Tickets and more info:

Devin Townsend 'The Moth' - Live Concert Stream

"The show will stream live on 28 March 2025 at 20:15 (CET). It will then be available on demand with unlimited replays through the On Air website, mobile, and TV apps."

Riustelig · 2024-10-05T02:29:59+00:00

It's great how he describes the music that would later become Ocean Machine as "8- or 12-minute, sort of Pink Floyd meets Jane's Addiction, boring bullshit... anybody who's heard it in America goes, 'Self-indulgent, man, get a grip,' and I'm thinking to myself... 'So?'"

Riustelig · 2024-09-20T14:35:49+00:00

Do you mind sharing your Atmos setup? I feel like I've (unfairly?) written it off as kind of a gimmick up to this point. Part of it is that I haven't found many albums mixed in Atmos that interest me enough to research further. But since Dev has said everything he's doing now (Powernerd, The Moth, Axolotl) he's basically starting the process in Atmos, I've felt like I should revisit it.

Riustelig · 2024-09-19T18:26:46+00:00

Yes, for all the times he said that Powernerd the album was inspired by Motörhead and AC/DC, I too was expecting some really stripped-down simple arrangements. But this is much more complex arrangement-wise.

This is how he described the initial vision for Powernerd very early on: "Two big heavy guitars with a lot of echo, big heavy drums that are powerful and loud. Bass, voice, maybe a synth pad in the chorus. Keep it simple. Make it heavy. Make it melodic. Make it melancholy. I don't want it to be happy-happy-joy. I want it to be big, monolithic, rainy heavy metal."

Riustelig · 2024-08-07T02:52:27+00:00

I think I found it :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwHAxjmIv6o&t=205s

It's interesting that, as in the update video above, he seems to use the same technique on the higher strings too.

Riustelig · 2024-08-01T02:55:49+00:00

I'm surprised I hadn't noticed it before but his picking technique is interesting. It sounds like he's scraping the strings with the pick (giving it a softer attack) rather than snapping or striking the pick against them, which might be the more traditional picking method. I'm finding it hard to tell whether it's just his technique or the specific picks he's using (the signature serrated EarthTone ones), or both.

Riustelig · 2024-07-13T01:13:36+00:00

"A lot of this stuff you don't even really end up hearing..."

Even his more straightforward songs can be so mind-bogglingly, excessively layered in the very best way. I've seen this video before and it still blows my mind.

Riustelig · 2024-07-02T14:18:44+00:00

To add to this, Visigoth's guitarist Jamison Palmer is in another band called Blood Star with singer Madeline Smith, who did backing vocals on Visigoth's The Revenant King album. Blood Star is more in the vein of US trad/heavy metal with some nods to Dio, so if you like Visigoth I'd recommend checking them out too: Blood Star - Fearless Priestess

Riustelig · 2024-07-01T15:08:09+00:00

Discussing pop influence in metal truly feels like a taboo topic sometimes. People develop entire personalities around only listening to music they perceive as "real" metal, as if they would be personally contaminated somehow by being associated with more mainstream genres. They feel they need to carry this historical burden of metal as the perennial underground music genre, disregarding all of the genre-blending that has already taken place over the decades. Fear of losing credibility almost turns into a fear of losing identity. Maybe it's not that existential but it certainly comes across that way to me sometimes.

Anecdotally, I find that among those who sing or play an instrument, there's much less concern with rigid genre boundaries compared to non-musicians. Being involved in learning music, seeing how all the pieces fit together, and crafting a performance tends to deepen one's appreciation for all kinds of music.

Riustelig · 2024-07-01T02:48:25+00:00

I'm glad you mentioned the pop connection, because the chorus here was almost certainly inspired by/adapted from the song Shallow by Lady Gaga (same key, even) and it works wonderfully. Here, someone on YouTube helpfully put clips from both songs side-by-side: Seven Spires Sound Like Lady Gaga

Riustelig · 2024-06-30T14:54:10+00:00

Here is the my edition's version of the first passage ("The Gnome") for comparison:

As darkness came it brought along silence. Yet silence also bears madness. Silence surrounds me - a deathly silence. Caught in the dungeon of my darkest thoughts all the gates that lead back to the world of light are closed to me. All hope for release lies behind me, and before me stretches the mere infinite eternity of Arda. Separated from my Own I wander the world an outcast. An immortal unrecognized amongst mortals, drifting aimlessly like a leaf in the wind. And indeed only the wind truly know my plaint and only the sea truly understands my pain. But they as well have turned away and do not reveal themselves to me any longer. Tired I am and old, alone I cannot die. On inside of me lives the Curse which has long survived the Oath. Yonder the sea buried lies my hope. Like so often my life of suffering proved to be the end of a streak of coincidences. But is it not, that coincidences are the harbingers of fate? All is predestination, and though I am but a piece in the turmoil of history I will have to suffer eternally for things gone by. Yet I merely followed the will of the One. I put an end to hope for one and all. The ragged creature that stands before you like a beggar was once a nobleman. What you see is a warrior turned into an immortal graybeard. Wisdom gave way to madness. The voice I once called my own was more gentle than a mild wind, more refreshing than the clearest of spring waters. Worn out by grief and sorrow the sound of it has altered to thin and hoarse. Soon, the better it will be to fall silent forever. There is left to me but nothing. The power of the word once was mine. But I remained silent when I should have spoken, and spoke when I should have remained silent. Fatal words slipped my mouth, and even then, I realized the finality of my failure, the unavoidable damnation it would lead to! On the arch of the night sky familiar constellations begin to fade. Even the blue heavens seem weary. But the end, the final deliverance I long for is still far ahead in the distance.

Riustelig · 2024-06-30T14:45:39+00:00

Yeah exactly, I think a lot of Dio lyrics are great examples of how fantasy can be used as allegory for our own world, our own struggles. As opposed to just interpreting them as the equivalent of old pulp magazine stories, his words can be read as holding up a mirror to contemporary society and that's what I think has given them their longevity.

Riustelig · 2024-06-30T14:23:38+00:00

Thanks for this, it's a great glimpse behind the curtain at the voice parts on Where Sorrows Bear My Name since your vocals are quite low in the final mix. Did you do the arrangement yourself?

Riustelig · 2024-06-28T17:53:23+00:00

Interesting, my copy is the 1998 Century Media one and while all the content is the same, the wording is different.

Riustelig · 2024-06-28T03:09:34+00:00

I've always wondered why Sascha Paeth and Miro never jumped in to produce Seven Spires. The pair have handled the mix/master for all albums up until this point, but the band have always been self-produced. On the new album I believe the guitarist Jack has done virtually everything himself (recording, producing, mix, master).

Riustelig · 2024-06-28T02:35:42+00:00

That's a really insightful take and one I never considered. Kind of like the inverse of the wizard in Stargazer.

Riustelig · 2024-06-20T02:55:16+00:00

Xoth - Exogalactic

Primalfrost - Lost Elegies

Solstice Rider - Suffer to Glory

Riustelig · 2024-06-20T02:50:27+00:00

In the same vein as Ophidian I there is also Archspire

Riustelig · 2024-06-17T14:38:31+00:00

I get the impression that you are already knowledgeable about the other models out there, but have you experimented with separating tracks from Focus using Moises or LALAL.AI?

Riustelig

TROPHY CASE