Sound of Animals Fighting Review #2

[Scott Weber]

As promised, I have written and posted my counter-review to Ryan's initial review of The Sound of Animals Fighting (http://www.thesoundofanimalsfighting.com/) - Tiger and the Duke right here (http://www.absolutepunk.net/reviews/showproduct.php?product=571). You'll have to scroll down past Ryan's review to see mine.

[poppa Q]

Yes.

[I Miss Weezer]

Oh man, you really liked that disc?

[kissbangkill]

i like the album (minus the interludes), and while i find points i agree with in both reviews, i by no means find this to be "an innovative sound that holds more integrity than virtually anything else you’ll hear today". personally i just think it's a bunch of dudes that wish to god they were the mars volta. nothing against you personally scott... to each their own, but i'm just not buying it. i do enjoy it a lot though and plan to order it in the future. but i just think it's a really good ep at best that was put together by some friends, for fun. nothing more. my two cents anyway, for what it's worth.

p.s. the production kind of hurts my ears. especially the drums.

[XlenceOfXecution]

i agree with you way more then then when scott wrote the review....overall the CD is bad ass....but those interludes, in my opinion, are useless and get annoying quickly....but the every act on that CD is amazing...epspecially for the limited amount of time they had to make it

[Scott Weber]

i like the album (minus the interludes), and while i find points i agree with in both reviews, i by no means find this to be "an innovative sound that holds more integrity than virtually anything else you’ll hear today". personally i just think it's a bunch of dudes that wish to god they were the mars volta. nothing against you personally scott... to each their own, but i'm just not buying it. i do enjoy it a lot though and plan to order it in the future. but i just think it's a really good ep at best that was put together by some friends, for fun. nothing more. my two cents anyway, for what it's worth.

p.s. the production kind of hurts my ears. especially the drums.
if you read the liner notes you'd understand this project better.

[March_Faster!!]

kudos scott. i thought ryan's review was way too harsh. I thought it rocked nuts and was quite innovative. I don't even mind the interludes, just the over-all length of the cd bugged me. I wanted more songs.

[yeknom]

the songs rock, i like them. but i agree this should be an EP. Anxious to read the liner notes, although that could be difficult as i wont be buying this CD with all the great music heading our way in the near future.

off the subject....anyone remember The June Spirt? yea they rocked. check out new atlantic.they rock too with members of the june spirt.

[saintjoel]

i liked it, and i dont mind the interludes if im reading or studying or something, but in my car they get skipped

[the rog]

you want a prize or something? you basically said the same stuff that ryan did except you gave it an 8.8 rather than a 3.1.

edit: also in a few places you said stuff was great when ryan mainly said it was good.

[yeknom]

you want a prize or something? you basically said the same stuff that ryan did except you gave it an 8.8 rather than a 3.1.

edit: also in a few places you said stuff was great when ryan mainly said it was good.

why the fuck do you care so much?

[musical monkey]

but i'm just not buying it. i do enjoy it a lot though and plan to order it in the future.

apparently you will be buying it. got 'em!

[kissbangkill]

apparently you will be buying it. got 'em!

hahahahaha i'm giving you points for that you asshole. ;)

[GAD_guy]

for the most part i agree with scott on the quality of the 4 actual tracks, but i just can't get over how they recorded those 4 songs and then milked them for all they were worth by adding some crappy interludes and calling it a full-length. as an EP it's great, i just can't see this deserving an 8.8 fotrwhat it is, a supposed full-length album. think about if a band just relased a regular 9 track album and you only liked 4 of those tracks. i doubt you would give it an 8.8. so that is my complaint with this review, the fact that it is a full length album with 9 individual tracks needs to be taken into account.

[GAD_guy]

off the subject....anyone remember The June Spirt?

yeah i remember the june spirit. they had that one awesome song "if kenneth could speak" (which i still listen to often) and pretty much nothing else.

[CT-Tim]

I like how "ascending diminished triads" is in quotes as if it's something mysterious... haha.

For those that don't know what a diminished triad is... it's a chord made up of the root and two minor thirds.

[Scott Weber]

for the most part i agree with scott on the quality of the 4 actual tracks, but i just can't get over how they recorded those 4 songs and then milked them for all they were worth by adding some crappy interludes and calling it a full-length. as an EP it's great, i just can't see this deserving an 8.8 fotrwhat it is, a supposed full-length album. think about if a band just relased a regular 9 track album and you only liked 4 of those tracks. i doubt you would give it an 8.8. so that is my complaint with this review, the fact that it is a full length album with 9 individual tracks needs to be taken into account.
I don't see why I, or anyone else has to take anything into account. I don't recall the band, the label, myself, or anyone else ever LABELING this cd as an EP or a full-length. People just assume it's a full length because it's 9 tracks...take it for what it is, whether it's an EP or an LP, it doesn't matter - it's a work of art, and it doesn't deserve to be pigeonholed like that.

[surfwaxsideshow]

GAD Guy is exactly right. Would you really rate an album of 9 actual songs so highly if only 4 were good and you hated the other 5? I really doubt it. The more skipover tracks an album has, the less good of an album it is. It's not even a question of opinion, it's pretty much a fact that the more filler songs an album has, the weaker it is as a whole.

[Scott Weber]

apperantly you didn't read my post above. It seems so narrow minded to look at it like that...is music a math project? is it only 4/9ths of a real album? I don't think you can break a piece of art into fractions, dude. That's my personal opinion, and that's why it's a counter-review to Ryan's, who basically destroyed the album for having 5 interlude tracks, which I think is ridiculous. Remember, nobody is calling this CD a full-length but you guys.

[scorcho490]

apperantly you didn't read my post above. It seems so narrow minded to look at it like that...is music a math project? is it only 4/9ths of a real album? I don't think you can break a piece of art into fractions, dude. That's my personal opinion, and that's why it's a counter-review to Ryan's, who basically destroyed the album for having 5 interlude tracks, which I think is ridiculous. Remember, nobody is calling this CD a full-length but you guys.


I love the math project analogy.. I don't see how everyone is getting hung up on the interlude tracks. They aren't even claimed to be songs, they are interludes. They aren't even filler tracks really because a filler track is at least an attempt at a similiar thing as the other tracks on an album, like when the band can't write another "single" but they want to make the cd a full lengh. These are guys who obviously want to experiment and that is exactly what the did. Sometimes experiments fail, and that is really a matter of opinion. I have friends who are really into "noise music" and experimental instrumental stuff and they might like the interludes but hate the songs. It's opinions everyone, deal with it.

[Ryan Mills]

I gained a little more respect for this album since talking with Balling about it for a while. Basically the interludes are a step more towards trying to integrate some avant-garde electronica in the record, but I think the engineer who made them was way too inexperienced to pull it off. I also still think it's the wrong place to do that...I don't mind albums that take one route or the other (Balling praised Stockhausen a lot, and he was spot on) but I don't think the mixture works well nor are the experimental parts done by someone good enough to make them worthy to stand alone or with this.

[GAD_guy]

I don't see why I, or anyone else has to take anything into account. I don't recall the band, the label, myself, or anyone else ever LABELING this cd as an EP or a full-length. People just assume it's a full length because it's 9 tracks...take it for what it is, whether it's an EP or an LP, it doesn't matter - it's a work of art, and it doesn't deserve to be pigeonholed like that.

i call it a full-length becuase it is priced as a full-length. but don't take my criticism the wrong way because my only complaint with your review was the score, the rest of it was good.

[Scott Weber]

i call it a full-length becuase it is priced as a full-length. but don't take my criticism the wrong way because my only complaint with your review was the score, the rest of it was good.
Ok, I hear you. I have no idea how it's being priced, but if so you have a more than valid point.

[InaGreendase]

Goddammit, my review of this is going to look so badly rehashed when I finally post it.

[gawdzilla]

it sounds like a saosin record plus some bells and whistles. no good.

[FrancesdaMute]

everyone should read how the album was created...the process was completely reversed and shrunk down from what a normal album(ep or lp) would have. the article was floating around here somewhere...but everything is essentially improved, with the drums laying down the foundation and subsequent tracks being recorded in a day and layered over. many of the members have yet to even meet each other in person...which i think is pretty amazing. Even anthony's lyrics and vocal stylings were improved...which is even more impressive. Balling said that only his lyrics in the third movement(the spoken words, its third on the copy i have...) were planned, as he took them from Peter Pan, 'there are a thousand ways out've this city...blah blah". As for the album....interesting approach and final product. I do agree that the interludes detract from the quality...and i would be interested to see how these interludes are avant-garde in nature.
One thing i do not veiw as fair is the comparison between Mars Volta, because after listening to Cassandra Gemini i honestly doubt any artist in modern underground rock (or whatever you want to label the so called "scene") can come near the skills and talent that Mars Volta express.

and thats my little more than 2 cents. enjoy....flame on!

[so typical]

good review

[PaperclipAnemia]

you and ryan should do point/counterpoint like that on The Onion.

[the rog]

everyone should read how the album was created...the process was completely reversed and shrunk down from what a normal album(ep or lp) would have. the article was floating around here somewhere...but everything is essentially improved, with the drums laying down the foundation and subsequent tracks being recorded in a day and layered over. many of the members have yet to even meet each other in person...which i think is pretty amazing. Even anthony's lyrics and vocal stylings were improved...which is even more impressive. Balling said that only his lyrics in the third movement(the spoken words, its third on the copy i have...) were planned, as he took them from Peter Pan, 'there are a thousand ways out've this city...blah blah". As for the album....interesting approach and final product. I do agree that the interludes detract from the quality...and i would be interested to see how these interludes are avant-garde in nature.
One thing i do not veiw as fair is the comparison between Mars Volta, because after listening to Cassandra Gemini i honestly doubt any artist in modern underground rock (or whatever you want to label the so called "scene") can come near the skills and talent that Mars Volta express.

and thats my little more than 2 cents. enjoy....flame on!

note: i assume you mean improvised.

even with that being so, it really shouldn't change someone's opinion if they don't like the album.

[djUbilla]

why the fuck do you care so much?
Woah...Your name is monkey, only backwards!

[djUbilla]

I like how "ascending diminished triads" is in quotes as if it's something mysterious... haha.

For those that don't know what a diminished triad is... it's a chord made up of the root and two minor thirds.
Ah, thanks man. Taking me back to the day when I knew what the names of chords were...

And man, that's gotta sound sick, a minor third over a minor third. I've been all about them recently, but two of 'em... I'm about to have some fun when I whip out my guitar tomorrow.

[butIfellFORher]

i agree with scott

[Modus Operandi]

i likes the other dudes review better too.. all of anthonys vocals were improvised on the day he went into record these songs.. he had never heard them before and that is how the songwriters wanted it to be. i think it would be better if they would have spent alot more time on it.

[godzillany]

I think everyone regardless of if their ears like this cd need to respect it for how it went against labels and tours and marketing and gutted it down to what music should be about...er... the music. The industry is so fucked backwards today that everyone is too busy bitching about why there are interludes to stand up and applaud these bastards for their notions and the fact that this ablum is golden.

[gawdzilla]

I think everyone regardless of if their ears like this cd need to respect it for how it went against labels and tours and marketing and gutted it down to what music should be about...er... the music. The industry is so fucked backwards today that everyone is too busy bitching about why there are interludes to stand up and applaud these bastards for their notions and the fact that this ablum is golden.
oh, hell no. this means war.