Critical take on Absolute Elsewhere
Just a disclaimer that Absolute Elsewhere is one of my favorite albums, metal album of that year, all time etc etc. I love it, listen to it often, and seeing them play it live, no less than in a cemetery, was amazing.
And so with that said I want to offer a critical perspective, constructive feedback really — the drums are generally boring. I don’t think the playing is very good and at best it operates as part of the sonic composition of the piece rather than a standalone, creative instrumental. There’s value to that to be sure. But in an album that’s heavily inspired by and meant to be this progressive in addition to death metal opus, it’s disappointing in a genre that‘s defined by some of the greatest greats — Neil Peart, Danny Carey, Mike Portnoy etc. Blast beats have their place and are awesome but overused as they are here is boring. With that said there are definitely good moments — he does a great job of switching between half and cut time, the portions like at the beginning of Stargate Tablet III with the double bass that make a nice contrast to the guitars and he does that a few times, and like I said the overall contribution to the sonic composition is great. So, good elements but wish it was better overall.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk. Welcome any thoughts or disagreements etc!