What are you listening to at the moment?

[Cancer]

Seventeen Seconds by The Cure goes very well with working on a longish poem about haunted houses.

I've also been meaning to purchase Disintegration and Pornography; the latter I tried to listen to, but couldn't get into, sometime around 2013. I remember the songs sounding very flat, very monotonous and heavy, but now that I have the context of The Cure's other work, I'll probably be able to appreciate their layers better.

[Polyhymnia]

I go through bouts where I obsessively listen to Manilla Road's Crystal Logic album. This past week I've been listening to it over and over again, along with the latest Nile release when I feel inexplicably angry.

This is my favourite track off of Crystal Logic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjOpymX8nfs

Look for the lost and you just might find
That the cost is your mind
Ride the Serpent and make your stand
Cast no doubt
TO THE RAMMMMMMM

[Aquila]

I go through bouts where I obsessively listen to Manilla Road's Crystal Logic album. This past week I've been listening to it over and over again, along with the latest Nile release when I feel inexplicably angry.

This is my favourite track off of Crystal Logic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjOpymX8nfs

Look for the lost and you just might find
That the cost is your mind
Ride the Serpent and make your stand
Cast no doubt
TO THE RAMMMMMMM

I have such seasons as well. Crystal Logic is among my favorites these days! Well-balanced album with hits and epics.

[Polyhymnia]

I have such seasons as well. Crystal Logic is among my favorites these days! Well-balanced album with hits and epics.

Great minds think alike, they say

I've been obsessively listening to Nevermore (Dreaming Neon Black, and This Godless Endeavour) from start to finish because of a dear friend recommending these specific albums to me. He thought I would specifically be drawn to the former, and he was right. I can't think of a bigger honour than someone thinking of you and recommending music based off what they know about you. To me that really is one of the most intimate ways to share with someone. Any art, really. A poem, a piece of visual art.

[Silvaeon]

I am completely in love with this album by Sulphura.

https://sulphura.bandcamp.com/album/rev ... dkwv36linc

It came out the day before our last calendary rite, and I listened to it for the first time during the ritual. I find the music extremely powerful, and it does wonders to calm and clear my mind. I've used it for all meditation and prayer work since, for sacred reading, and if I'm writing anything on the forum, chances are good that I'm listening to it as well. Luckily the bandcamp purchase came with a download for a 5.5 hour version, so any long-writing is not a problem

The album is ambient, by one of the guys behind the also excellent Schammasch, who released one of the best metal albums I've heard in a long, long time last year. I am not listening to much metal these days, but this is one of the few that is remaining a constant.

https://schammasch.bandcamp.com/album/h ... f-no-light

[Smaragd]

I love the song Necropolis from that Manilla Road album, beautiful voice.

The Tolkien Ensemble was new aquintance and I like alot of the songs leaning towards the Elven themes.

Now I'd like to share with you this gem written on Alfred Tennysons poem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3sqtoUk3IU

Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white;
Nor waves the cypress in the palace walk;
Nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font.
The firefly wakens; waken thou with me.

Now droops the milk-white peacock like a ghost,
And like a ghost she glimmers on to me.

Now lies the Earth all Danaë to the stars,
And all thy heart lies open unto me.

Now slides the silent meteor on, and leaves
A shining furrow, as thy thoughts in me.

Now folds the lily all her sweetness up,
And slips into the bosom of the lake.
So fold thyself, my dearest, thou, and slip
Into my bosom and be lost in me.

[obnoxion]

a longish poem about haunted houses

I think I've said this before, but this is pretty much the best topic for poetry. I mean, you only have to write the words "empty house" on a piece of paper, and it immediately becomes a haunted house. And that effect understood deeply is one of the greatest powers of poetics.

I've also been meaning to purchase Disintegration and Pornography; the latter I tried to listen to, but couldn't get into, sometime around 2013. I remember the songs sounding very flat, very monotonous and heavy, but now that I have the context of The Cure's other work, I'll probably be able to appreciate their layers better.

I instantly loved the first three tracts of Pornography - the darkly epic "Hundred Years", the memerizing, bass-driven "Short Term Effect" (still one of my favourites from The Cure) and the thin gothic tribality of "Hanging Garden".Yet as a whole, the Pornography felt disapointing. But later, especially hearing the individual songs played in live sets, I'v found the brilliance of the record. Especially the song "Strange Day" has become the Cure song that I think I have listen most to this year.

Now, speaking of thin fothic tribal soound, I've listened to these three tracks a lot lately:

WITCHING HOUR: Ligea
(This seems the be the correct spelling of the song's name, though it must've been inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's "Ligeia". I wonder if the different spelling is accidental or intentional... Anyway, I never grow tired of this song. Never.)

PINK TURNS BLUE: Your Master is Calling
(A renfieldesque hymn to a vampira. When songs about masters of darkness abound, it is refreshing to hear the cries of a slave of the night)

SHE PAST AWAY: Kasvetli Kutlama
(Seldom one hears such cassic gothic rock soundscape not only so well done, but also in an orginal and novel manner. The video for the song is simple but great)

[Nefastos]

Yet as a whole, the Pornography felt disapointing.

Just yesterday, listening once again this album that has become very dear to me, I felt grateful to this thread's recommendations. To me, the best thing about Pornography is its wholeness as a one solid piece of art, which is not common in albums. It was Disintegration that felt fragmented to me, and lacked the intense overall feeling of a mental Underworld that I get from listening Pornography.

[obnoxion]

Yet as a whole, the Pornography felt disapointing.

Just yesterday, listening once again this album that has become very dear to me, I felt grateful to this thread's recommendations. To me, the best thing about Pornography is its wholeness as a one solid piece of art, which is not common in albums. It was Disintegration that felt fragmented to me, and lacked the intense overall feeling of a mental Underworld that I get from listening Pornography.

The wholeness is certainly the strength of Pornography. I just think I prefer albums that are more like collection of individual songs than orchestrated wholes. Suppose it is for the same reason I prefer a lo-fi sound. They leave so much room for the imagination to fill the blanks, to build a whole of the fragments.

Though it isn't just that. For example, I like many King Diamond albums because the long narrative structures. The tempo in many of the songs in Pornography is just too slow for me to be instantly enjoyable.

[Soror O]

Lately been listening to Ulver a lot (once again). Specially the album "Assassination of Julius Caesar". This album is very easy to listen, maybe even too easy: I get quite erotic and nostalgic pop-vibes from this album. I fancy the idea of combining 'mythical/historical' lyrics with dark synth-pop ambience. Still, I find that the lyrics are far from being perfect. At times they feel a bit too naïve and self-explanatory to me. BUT the delicious melodic surroundings make up this shortcoming and as a whole the album is quite yummy indeed.