STUNNINGLY BEAUTIFUL YET BRUTAL // Ne Obliviscaris - Exul // Composer Reaction & Analysis
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 3 июн 2024
- Bryan reacts to and talks about his thoughts on Ne Obliviscaris' album "Exul"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
VOTE ON UPCOMING THEMES AND SONGS // / criticalreactions
SPECIAL SELECTION REQUEST // www.paypal.com/paypalme/criti...
OR // ko-fi.com/criticalreactions
LINKTREE // linktr.ee/criticalreactions
Contains links for Special Selection submissions, the CR Patreon, access to the CR Discord Server, the CR Mastodon profile, and more.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
00:00 Intro
02:34 Reaction: Equus
15:06 Analysis: Not Layering, But Filling
22:30 Analysis: Absolutely Solid Drumming
28:52 Analysis: Multi-faceted Writing
33:43 Analysis: A Lot of Melody
41:13 Analysis: Horse Related Sounds
44:44 Analysis: More String Instrumentation!
49:20 Analysis: It's Beautiful In Every Moment
52:23 Analysis: Extra Instruments
56:25 Lyrical Dive: Equus
1:02:45 Reaction: Misericorde I - As the Flesh Falls
1:11:09 Analysis: Emotionally Resonant
1:19:32 Analysis: A Harsher Sound Than Expected
1:23:24 Lyrical Dive: As the Flesh Falls
1:27:28 Reaction: Misericorde II - Anatomy of Quiescence
1:37:13 Analysis: A Wonderful Continuation
1:45:10 Analysis: It's A Eulogy
1:51:24 Lyrical Dive: Anatomy of Quiescence
1:55:10 Reaction: Suspyre
2:06:19 Analysis: The Heaviest So Far
2:11:03 Analysis: Melodic Drumming Ideas
2:14:56 Analysis: Expanded Performance Vocabulary
2:20:33 Analysis: Expanded Harmonic Vocabulary
2:26:20 Lyrical Dive: Suspyre
2:36:42 Reaction: Graal
2:46:12 Reaction: Anhedonia
2:49:58 Analysis: Continuing Heaviness
2:55:29 Analysis: Quick Recap
2:59:33 Analysis: An Interesting Ending
3:02:11 Lyrical Dive: Graal
3:09:39 Analysis: Exul Definition
3:13:00 Outro
#reaction #neobliviscaris #progressivemetal #deathmetal
![TRASH or PASS! Eminem ( Houdini ) [REACTION!!!]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/cB1WrZcMwMc/mqdefault.jpg)
Looking at your reaction for track 2, it really reminds of the reaction I had to "Devour Me, Colossus" from NeO. Was quite sad that you never reacted to it :D There is a section that starts with a simple idea and adds more layers to it over time. Made me tear up a few times lol, it's so beautiful! These moments are honestly what draws me to music in the long run. It's rare, but when it happens - god damn it you will feel and remeber it for years to come.
Totally agree with remembering it for years to come. There are certain songs that I come back to because I know I'll get that physical and emotional response from them. And I think that this track from NeO will be one of those for me.
@@CriticalReactionsamazing reaction. I was drawn to this comment purely at the mention of Devour me Colossus. We’re still waiting Brian 😁
Please and thanks 😂
For anyone who hasn't grown up on a diet of RPGs or medieval weaponry, a Misericorde (from the French word for Mercy) is a short, thin sword that was used to deliver a mercy killing, a final thrust to the brain or heart of someone who had suffered a fatal but slow wound. It's a beautifully dark embodiment of what they're conveying in their music and lyrics.
I can't imagine any fans of their previous work not enjoying this album in full. It's the Ne Obliviscaris we know, levelled up to a remarkable level. Truly amazing!
And the reaction/analysis! You've got such a wonderful flow when excited about something. A real treat to follow!
As Bryan points out, this album feels more progressive/avant-garde and drops some of the more extreme metal influences that were prevalent on previous albums. If you are more into that then it's pretty understandable that you don't enjoy this album.
Personally I'm more into the previous sound because those harsher moments for NeO almost always still contain great melodies and they make the soft passages hit even harder. I still enjoy this album a lot though.
@@colemantrebor6574 I get you. My point wasn't that any fan would think this is their pinnacle. Just thought it impossible for any fan to not enjoy it a lot 🙂.
I dunno how I didn't find this before but I was waiting for a reaction to it for a while. Anatomy of Quiescence is one of the most hauntingly beautiful pieces of music I've heard in my life.
I think suspyre is so underrated. Definitely one of my favorite track in this album with equus
Continuation of answering some of the questions you asked. The band was primarily Australian based when they started (that was like in 2003 and they didn't put out a full length album until 2012, so there was some shifting around before then). At the time of release of Portal of I (1st album), all but one member was Australian. Their lead guitarist is French, they recruited him long-distance after their previous guitarist left in 2007. As far as I know the Australians didn't all know each other from the start, maybe the vocalists did but the drummer and bassist were all external. So it's a group of people that came together to make exceptional music. Since then, they've replaced their bassist (Portal of I and Citadel were recorded with their original bassist, Urn with an interim bassist, though I think it was still written by their original player). Their current bassist, who composed and played on Exul, is Italian, also recruited long-distance through auditions. After the release of Exul, their drummer left to start his own band and they added another Frenchman (Kevin Paradis) with whom they've played the whole Exul tour. He's just as insanely precise and inexhaustible as their original drummer. Can't wait to see what he brings to their next album with his own writing.
You so right at the beginning. Seeing this title made me unbelievably excited. Been hoping you would cover this album since it released and now it is finally here.
This album was by far my favorite album of last year in a year packed with incredible music. NeO is my favorite band of all time and this album elevated their sound to another leve. Misericorde Pt II is the most beautiful piece of metal I've ever personally heard and the rest of the album is not far behind.
I feel like this album flew under people's radar more than I thought, this album is so damn good. hope more people get into it.
1h 20 in. What a wonderful treat this reaction is! ❤❤❤
Just a note: There was a great, longer guitar solo in the first track. I'm sure you'll enjoy it on subsequent listens 🙂
The drummer's 'Proficiency'. Loved your reaction to track 2. Amazing :) Viceral.
From Amarok to Exul in just a few weeks. I'm living the dream.
Great work
Having only gone through most of the Equus discussion for now, I can answer some of your questions. In Australian shows I've heard they've had some of the additional instrumentalists there live. Tim's (clean vocalist) sister Emma was there, the cellist as well, I think also the viola player. On other live shows they've been on a backing track, they mostly recruit these players from around Australia so they get featured more on Australian shows than abroad.
As for the additional vocalists you saw listed, that was the choir section towards the end.
Regarding featuring additional instruments in other parts of their work, they definitely had some expanded sections on their previous album, Urn: several layers of violin on Eyrie, and a cello on Intra Venus, that's just from what I can remember off the top of my head. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some other instrumentation squirreled away in some of their earlier material as well. There's some piano in some instrumental intros and outros of Citadel but I can't recall whether they featured in some of their full songs as well off the top of my head.
For Equus, I'm pretty sure they set up both a 6/8 and 4/4 feel, at least that's what I can sense in my few years of unused classical training haha
Oh fuck yes. I apologise for all the shockwaves I have caused by moving my finger a little too fast to the play button, but it couldn't be helped. May mother nature forgive me.
Re: physical reaction to music, An Abstract Illusion's Slaves also got you!
That's such a great track. That whole album is great.
True! ❤
@@ryansadauskisTotally! ❤
You should react to Libera, Devour Me Colossus, and Pyrrhic. It's some of their best work that you have not reacted to yet.
Oh man. A full NeO album reaction. Dreams do come true haha
I still prefer Portal of I over this one mainly for the same reasons you end this reaction with. The back half here does not hit me as much as the first half, whereas PoI feels to me like a more well-rounded album (and the highs, especifically And Plague Flowers... and Forget Not, contain THE highest NeO moments IMO). But like you said, this is still a solid 9/9.5.
If you end up going down the NeO rabbit hole, don't forget the EPs, they're phenomenal in their own right, especially Hiraeth.
Btw there's a typo in the Suspyre fragment, on YT (it says Susprye). Great reaction as always!
I totally forgot about their EPs so thanks for that reminder. And I appreciate the typo callout -- that's fixed now :)
@@CriticalReactions be aware that they remove any video with their EPs in use, you cant find them on youtube for the same reason
HELL YEAH! You spoke my thoughts in the first 10 seconds. Hyped to watch this!
@CriticalReactions
Just a tip for future album reactions: Whenever you need to pause in a transition, please go back a little before restarting. That way you'll get the gist of the transition better.
Can't believe I forgot about such an obvious thing 😅. I'll be sure to do that in future reviews.
Suspyre is one of my favorite NeO songs. This part of the video was rough for me lol😅
I heard the horse whining until you pointed it out and now I can no longer unhear it haha
First off, thank you for this reaction and analysis of their new album. I immediately clicked on the video, first thing in the morning.
I mainly wanted you to check out the epic Misericorde, which to me, is my favorite part of the album. Now, you have to excuse my heretical ass for listening to the 2nd movement for months before discovering the 1st. I'm a casual listener (or was before NeO), I tend to approach albums by their best songs first then expand my interest to others in the album. So I must applaud you for taking the time to review the whole album, including songs you've already done in separate videos prior. Your dedication, knowledge and passion to music are always qualities for me to strive for.
That being said, I adore the 2nd movement to the core of my being. I know I am heavily biased due to my old taste in purely instrumental songs. I don't dislike vocals, but there are so few instrumental songs out there, I cannot help myself showing the absolute appreciation when I encounter them. I was instantly hooked on the 2nd movement, mesmerized. I still remember my first listen, the frissons, the tearing up, the pressure on my chest, "verklempt" is a nice word. Just like you experienced the 1st movement, being pulled into this suspending space, this state of trance where there are just me and the track. It is truly out-of-body. It is haunting. And it is inexplicably beautiful.
Months later I gave the 1st movement a go. And my God, let me tell ya, it only amplified what feelings I had already invested in the 2nd movement. Now the two of them cannot be separated. I felt like I experienced the 2nd movement for the first time again, which was unspeakably nostalgic. But now with the addition of a "prologue". Everything felt whole and right. I particularly fell in love with the connecting section between the two movements. The 2 violin lines are so tormenting, the pounding drums replace your heartbeats, the pain in the final growl "DESOLA ... TIONNNNNNNNNN". This is the moment of death, the last breath, the expulsion of pain and suffering from the body for the pure soul to be lifted. When the flesh falls. Then the next movement, only kept a single line of violin. The long-awaited peace and relief. Quiescence.
Regarding track 2, I have a chronic illness that affects me both physically and mentally to the point I am debilitated though you wouldn't know it looking at me
i encourage you to do an album review on there's no horizon by ulcerate. it's a avant-garde death with tech, subte elements of doom and a bit black sound profile with agonizing philosophical lyrics theme.
and last but not least drums work is phenomenal with lots of cymbals embellishments, the drummer(jamie saint merat) is the goat!!
and thank you for your invaluable content❤
I'm happy to see you sad. LOL. Ne Obliviscarus moves me as well. A gem amongst the metal community.
Incredible album they released. Can't wait for the next one!
oh my god. havent watched yet but holy was I waiting for this
What an unbelivable album! Fantastic reaction as always!
Did click as fast as possible. Eyrie from Urn next! :)
That classical reference was probably Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by Mozart
Fanstastic if you love Melodic Death Metal.
Just heard this a few days ago. Definitely up to NeO's typically high standards. That said, I still can't shake the feeling they're already starting to recycle a pretty samey and limited formula. When they started out I thought of them as a more blackened, slightly posty version of Opeth-esque melodeath, and they've pretty much stayed in that same niche ever since. They've leaned slightly more towards one aspect of that sound or another, but compared to the evolution (and eventual complete transformation) a band like Opeth made I'm starting to thing NeO is never really going to take that next step... whatever that next step may be. Still, it's hard to complain much when they're making music this awesome, but the fact is I don't think they're ever going to be a band that makes me go "wow, I've never heard anything like this before," which is ultimately going to keep them as one of those bands I immensely enjoy/admire, but not one of my absolute favorites. Still a solid 8/10 for me and I wouldn't begrudge anyone rating them higher.
Basically what happens when you are locked in a genre
I mean Portal Of I and Citadel were both albums that made me go I've never heard anything like this before. Then Urn was similar to Citadel, and this is similar as well but less heavy and more progressive/avant-garde.
I've heard so many different takes on NeO that I can't help but wonder whether people are listening to the same band. Cause you're saying NeO is sticking to the same formula and isn't evolving. A few lines above you someone else says they wish NeO wrote more like they used to back in Citadel days. So which is it? Are they too repetitive and rehashing the same stuff over and over or have they deviated too far from the magical formula that made them special? Cause it can't be both.
I think some people just don't enjoy the last two albums as much as the first two and because NeO music is so complex and difficult to analyse, they can't pinpoint why exactly they don't like them as much. For me I think all of their albums are excellent and have a lot to offer, and Exul is really hard for me to place. Might be better than Portal because it's of a much more consistent quality, might be better than Urn though it's a tad less diverse, but I'm not sure on either. Cause Suspyre is original as fuck, and Portal is still a great album, just less cohesive and with a few more weak points. Citadel is king, of course. But in the end, it's still all NeO, so it's just better than the competition. It's like comparing four 10/10 cakes to a stale croissant.
@@lMarcusl I think Portal Of I is definitely quite unique. I think the reason Urn is less well liked is because it sounds a lot like Citadel and people like Citadel better.
Exul to me sounds really different from the previous works. There is a lot less double kick work from the drums, and the arrangements are more often complex: it happens more often that we have violin, cleans and harshes over distorted guitars. The overall sound is definitely softer and more progressive/avant-garde leaning.
@@colemantrebor6574 See, even we have a different take on NeO. To me Urn and Citadel sound nothing alike, the soundscape and atmosphere to me are extremely different. Might be the album covers are colouring my experience a bit, but to me Citadel sounds a lot darker and depressive, Urn a lot more scathing and cutting (with notable exceptions like Eyrie, and even that has its scorching sections).
As for the double kicks, Exul is still rife with them and there's even more snare blastbeats than before I feel. Suspyre and Graal in particular are pretty relentless with the drumming, and while the softer sections of Misericorde and Equus naturally don't feature this aggressive drumming, there were similar quiet breaks in Painters and Colossus, neither of which I would classify as soft drum songs.
On a personal note, I found the double kicks were starting to get a bit tired. Like when they come in during the ramp up in Forget Not, I could feel my heartbeat speed up, my adrenaline spike the first time I heard it. But a few albums in, those kicks lose their magic if they're overused, they stop being effective, and you have to start finding different ways to ramp up the intensity cause the kicks are already in from the outset. I haven't found Exul to be a particular downshift in kick use, and I'm hoping their new drummer varies things up a bit more. This is no slight to Dan, he was an amazing drumer and did a lot of creative stuff in the other sections of the kit.
As an avid fan of this band I have to say I was underwhelmed with this album. While the songs are long, they're not long enough for Ne Oblivscaris standards. The band has set such a president for crafting big grandiose songs, with monolithic size climaxes. That's what I felt towards most tracks on the bands first two albums. When they release their track Intra Venus in their 3rd album that's when I felt them start to waver from their tried and true ideology. It was more compact and more standard of a song structure, I felt this highly let me down as I'm so used to the grand concepts from the band. Exul maintains the same one as Intra Venus and so I'm heavily let down, Equus is my favorite track because it atleast has some semblance of what I loved about their first two albums, but the others lack heavily in my opinion.
Can't really agree with that. Yes, Intra Venus is definitely their most "standard" song, but it has most definitely not become their usual approach, it was an exception. And it still features the NeO signature layered harsh/clean vocals and an extended musical break, just on a smaller scale. But in terms of length or epicness, I can't agree that their later albums have somehow gone downhill. Portal of I had a good number of songs at around 10 to 12 minutes. They generally didn't feature distinct movements or parts, each song had its extended trajectory. This changed on Citadel, which is the most unique of their albums as it consists of two big, multi-part epics and only one "standalone" track (which was still absolutely exceptional and is one of my favourites). But Citadel was more of an exception than a rule. Portal of I wasn't written that way. And I'd argue, their later albums actually mix Portal of I and Citadel together in a way. They still feature big multi-part epics like Citadel did, and they feature more standalone, self-contained songs like Portal of I did. You may not like the songs themselves but you can't say they've gone down in scope. Libera is 12 and a half minutes, Urn is 14 minutes, Eyrie is a single track with no separate parts or movements and it clocks in at 12 minutes. Eyrie alone is longer than every track on Portal of I, and it's the second shortest song on Urn. Moving on to Exul, Equus is just a hair longer than Eyrie, Misericorde is 16 minutes, Suspyre is 10 minutes. These are NOT short songs and most of them run longer than Portal of I songs. As for Citadel, Misericorde is longer than Devour Me, Colossus. Structurally, the other songs on the last two albums are in no way similar to Intra Venus, like, not even in the slightest. Hell, if you put And Plague Flowers the Kaleidoscope next to Equus, these are more structurally similar with each other than any track on Exul is with Intra Venus.
It's fine if you think Portal of I or Citadel is NeO's best album. But you can't say that the band has gone more "standard" or abandoned their old ways of writing since. Citadel was the first album to feature major, multi-part epics, and they've continued to push that forward on both of their follow-ups, with Libera, Urn, Misericorde and Equus (Equus is not multi-part but it certainly has distinct movements). And they've not written anything like Intra Venus anywhere other than in Intra Venus. One standard song does not make them a standard band. If you don't enjoy Exul or Urn, that's fine, but I think you're misjudging WHY you don't like them. The structure or the way they compose has not changed dramatically. It's the sound and atmosphere they go for that has gone in various different directions. As it should, you can't just keep writing Citadel over and over. You may not enjoy the soundscape as much as the older stuff, but that doesn't mean NeO's style became watered down.
@@lMarcuslMisericorde feels like a short 7 minute song with an 9 minute outro that way overstays its welcome, Suspyre is long but it's not epic, it repeats the same motifs over and over in a very predictable way, Graal feels short too, this just screams Intra Venus structure to me, sure it has "grand" outro tacked on at the end but it just feels forced and pales in comparison to the finale of Devour Me, Forget Not, Xenoflux, I can go on and on, all just my opinion though, like what you like, peace.
I never thought I would hear someone complain about NeO's songs not being long enough lol. You are talking like Exul was full of 4-5 minute songs like 99% of metal bands when the average song length on the album is ~8.5 minutes. Exul has 2 epics (Equus and Misericode) that take up half of the album, which is exactly the formula I would expect for their albums.
Fair if you don't like them as much, but your problem is not in the formula but in the execution.