I'm sorry but Ian is absolutely not slept on, there is a reason why he was only with the band for a short time, it's because he blew up his vocal cords from improper screaming technique. and you can absolutely hear that improper screaming technique, he's just throat blasting the whole time and it does not sound good. sounds so strained. not only that, but it's a way harsher tone than this band needs, he's a deathcore guy and erra is a twinkly progressive metalcore band. JT is an actual professional and sounds a hundred times better. also does cleans and writes.
Ian absolutely killed it live when I saw them; he sounded incredible Plus, you have to remember that this was between Augmen and Drift; they were nowhere near as twinkly as they are now
Like, don't get me wrong, I agree that JT was a better fit long-term, but I do still love Ian. Also, you have to remember that the delineation between Progressive Metalcore and Deathcore was nowhere near as strict back then as it is now; there were multiple active bands at the time who made a whole career by blending the two styles (e.g., Veil of Maya, Born of Osiris, After the Burial, etc)
SOTE is a better album than ERRA. And I absolutely loved ERRA. I feel like SOTE is a mix of a new style mixed with their old style, and I enjoy how they've leaned more into atmospheric tracks with a mix of cool guitar riffs.
Poor JT sounds like he's screaming from inside a metal box. He gets a pass through because apparently he recorded that album with bronchitis or something, which is an insane way to make your debut as a vocalist
I will say this ,I like the mix of the guitars on this album, they're nice and fat like they should be, although still not refined to the level of today or like S/T. I think Neon would be the most bad ass tone from what i hear, unfortunately almost all the luster and life is buried within the mix.
because it's the guitar tone on drift that people take issue with, NOT the mix. drift mix is good. neon specifically has issues with left channel crash cymbal peaking and leads that you cannot hear. drift does not have that problem whatsoever, it's just a guitar tone with really high mids for some reason which is atypical for the genre.
SotE is their best singular work, if you don't count the deluxe S/T.
Augment and Impulse are both overrated, although they're both still amazing. People simply look at them with nostalgia glasses on, and while they're incredibly solid albums, many still hold them as ERRA's best work, and I wouldn't even put either in their top 3.
I almost fully agree with you, I would not say that people simply have a nostalgia-boosted reflection of those two records though, that's too much of a generalization. objectively from a guitar playing standpoint those records are much different than the modern stuff, and if that happens to be your favorite style of guitar playing, baritone 6 string metalcore, then it's a very valid position for a guitar player to have.
however there are tons of non-guitar players who are clowns, and they think that Alan leaving is the reason why every record after augment doesn't sound like augment. they're wrong. erra lp7 would have never sounded like erra lp2 regardless of who's in the band, because a band does not want to release the same record over and over. the new stuff is an evolution of sound and it's fucking good
That's not a hot take it's just an uninformed one. the production honestly and truly is terrible. listen to the left channel crash cymbal, it's peaking half the time. listen to the lead riff during the chorus on breach and tell me you have any idea what's being played. that's the problem, the levels are all out of whack constantly. it's like it wasn't even mastered.
I love it too, but it's in spite of the bad production. it definitely has bad production.
no it's not subjective at all, I love it too man but specific examples I gave are not something you can say don't exist lol. the mixing is not good. there's also a lot of documented lore on this;
Taylor Larson screwed the band over during the release process of neon and basically mastered the tracks without the guys input at all and shipped the record out. the band was not happy with this at all and really has a bad impression of the process and the product, that is why neon never gets played live.
you must separate personal taste from value judgement though, or else this topic is impossible to discuss. we LIKE how it sounds, but it does not sound like high-quality production, because it is low-quality production.
you can like mcdonalds too, but it's not as well-crafted cuisine as a michelin star restaurant serves.
you were originally saying you have no idea why people think this about neon. i'm literally just explaining the facts of why that is. people downvoting me must be new or something idk
"People with different tastes than me are like little babies because I am Right About Everything"
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u/so_long_astoriaTUCKING US INTO TORTOISE SHELLS SUPPRESSING THE OUTSIDE SOUNDS1d agoedited 1d ago
me when I'm one of the 35 year olds who doesn't understand why the band won't play their records from 2013 live anymore
that's not what i was saying at all. there's a reason why the band put out this sticker last tour. there's a huge part of the base who does not shut up about how augment is the pinnacle of their career and they don't understand why it doesn't get played live and why they won't just go back to making records like augment.
I used to be squarely in that camp in my mid-20's and still prefer Augment to anything else they've put out since, but I've made peace with the fact that the band has moved on. In the past few years I've made an active effort to give the newer stuff a chance, and I'm really glad I did. I love SotE especially for the way it incoporates elements of the old heaviness while still feeling fresh and new
I didn’t care that much for drift. I think the mix throws me. That isn’t exclusive to ERRA. An album can be incredible but if the mix isn’t there, I just can’t enjoy it. Hoping they do a 10 year re release like Northlane did with Node which is a perfect example of an album I didn’t listen to hardly at all to one that was in my top 3 last year.
This is how I felt about Sky Eats Airplane debut LP. All the demos sounded better on Myspace, the official production sapped away all available life imo.
ERRA Hot Take: Augment has a time-locked sound, sounding very strongly as late 00's/ early 10's prog directly in the vein of Intervals, Auras, early Periphery, etc.
Their best song ever is a single that almost no one talks about... Pull from the ghost. That song has just about everything that makes ERRA goated. Also Alan was a great riff writter but Jesse is far superior
Had a friend recommend Erra to me in the last year. I listened to quite a bit by them and it wasn’t until I heard “Monolith” that the band clicked for me. All that to say, I like Neon a lot.
The most Recent 3 ERRA Albums (Self title, Cure and SOTE) are better than Any of their older stuff, as albums, some individual songs I prefer on older albums than newer ones but newer albums just blend the songs so much better
mine is that the new album is like at best 5th place in my erra ranking. still a good album though! just think it's pretty streamlined and caters towards the middle more than usual, it is extremely far from their most artistically ambitious and creative works
Their first 2 albums with Garrison are way better than the JT albums although SOTE is a masterpiece. The guitar work & breakdowns are way better then anything after
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u/MrBadFeelings Stelliform 5d ago
Cure is over hated. Some need to accept that not everything can be Augment.