Celestial Completion completes me!
So I was working on some web projects this morning and had the chance to finally get my grubby little (read: big) hands on Becoming the Archetype's latest album; Celestial Completion.
I had very high hopes for this album and I must say I have had both my mind blown and my perfectionist nay saying come out! It's a very intriguing place to be...
Production:
The very first thing that struck me about the album was that it was very cleanly produced. To that I give credit. It's not an easy thing to really master a clean metal band... but that being said, it might have been too clean! I really missed having some great bass runs and triggers booming. Maybe this was on purpose, maybe this was just me needing to listen to the album on a different system.
Style Variation
Diehard BTA fans rejoice! They have not strayed away from their original style and sound ever more the brutally natural sounding. The band has definitely continued to show their maturity in their playing and riff writing. This album features a lot more variation in their guitar chops while continuing to keep that melodic and break-down feel in every song that I love.
Celestial Completion also includes its fair share of standard BTA group vocals, piano inclusion and plenty of edgy guitar micro-solos not to mention a healthy dose of great transition solos that have been fairly bland on past albums.
Oh, and just for kicks BTA throws you a curve ball on tracks 9 and 10. Prepare for the run-on sentence: Expect to go from a Southwestern Asia/Middle Eastern inspired throat singing to BTA style 'almost-half-time' then on to BTA + trumpet breakdowns... yeah trumpets! That break down is then followed by a sweet clean guitar chord solo then into some contemporary swing/rockabilly! Yeah what the frick right!? It works, it's a nice mix-up and it's definitely shows that these guys are not your typical head to the stone, boxed-in, metal heads!
Vocals
I was happy to see that Jason Wisdom really has stuck to his guns (vocal style). Many metal vocalists tend to go the way of mixing singing into their style to give them selves "variety" and a break during sets... Jason really has a very natural growl and one that I never get tired of hearing. Also on this album was a lot more of Alex's (guitar) screaming to help compliment the earthy Jason. It was very well matched, not over played and great to see the band expanding more.
Album Length
As far as length, the album is a total of 11 tracks and is a total of 46:37 long. Now you might think, "Wow, that averages out to just over 4mins/song..." Well you'd be wrong as half the album is over 5mins/track! As I worked online, it was perfect background metal. It wasn't flashy enough to distract me from my work but yet offered enough variation in the songs to keep me stimulated.
Overall
This album really was a perfect growth step for Becoming the Archetype. They have really shown that they fully plan to stay who they are and only improve upon techniques. I really think that is commendable by any metal band as most have to change album to album to 'keep-it-fresh.' I would recommend Celestial Completion to anybody that has been a fan of BTA or is a fan of great, uncomplicated (as in a good way), metal with natural vocals that don't give me emo thoughts when listening. BTA is coming to my home town in a few weeks, I can't wait as I've missed the last five of my top-ten favorite metal bands. This will be a sure treat!
2:21am and I still have 6,000 more songs to upload…
I downloaded and installed Google's Music Beta music manager. It is pretty straight forward install and configuration. Nothing complicated or hidden. Pick where your music is, whether it be in iTunes, Media Player or where ever you have setup your music library. Then you select how to sync your files; automatically, based of computer usage or manually. I chose manual for the first sync. It recognized over 8,800 songs to sync to the service.
I have tried streaming to multiple computers and my Motorola Droid (yup, it runs fine on the first gen stuff as long as you have Android 2.2+) over various connection methods and have found the service to have great sound quality and usability. I am currently creating new playlist groups as I listen (I've never really been a playlist guy).
The web interface is pretty straight forward. In Google fashion it's clean and void of any extras that a group of paranoid, white wallpaper using, Googlers would be scared of. I found it very easy to use and for the most part very intuitive. I'd like to see some of the common Right-Click tasks integrated, but for a beta first-gen service it's great.
If you knew me during the golden ages of Lala.com, you know I was a huge fan and made sure all my buddies knew about the service. Ever since the rotten Apple got it's hands on it and strangled it to death, I have been waiting for an adequate replacement. All I can say is this just met those needs and surpassed them! Now if Google would stop supporting the crybaby's in their commercials!
Google launces Music Beta
Google today launched it's long anticipated cloud-based music hosting service called Music Beta for it's accounts and devices. This service is basically the next step in integrating all of the Google services with their Android and Web based devices. Seamless streaming from the web browser, to your recently updated Android 3.1 powered tablet, to your Android powered smart phone. I tell you what, I cant wait to get my invitation! Woot!
You can get to your personal music collection at home or on the go. Listen from the web or any enabled device with the Music app available from Android Market. Not online? No problem. The songs you've recently played will automatically be available offline. You can also select the specific albums, artists and playlists you want to have available when you're not connected.