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@ Punj Lizard: There's one dominant cause for the lack of dynamics you & others experienced. It's called "compression" and has been lamented here before. Not only kills the organic sound of the album, but also reduces some of Snah's divine solos to (almost) trash Рsoundwise. Reminds me of the latter day Moțrhead albums Рcouldn't stand the guitar sound Рobviously digital recording compressed to death. Shouldn't happen on a heavy rock band's album! But these are the times РI can hardly listen to most of the stuff published today, however interesting musically Рsoundwise it's Armageddon!
I'm not totally opposed to a little compression here & there, especially on bass, but it shouldn't kill all the living essence of a good guitar sound – let alone excellent music in general!
I can't really relate to that. I don't hear more compression than on other MP records, especially not in guitar solos. Compared it in my sound production software and switch-listened between this one and some of their albums from LLM onwards. I hear it's louder and more bitey midrangey. Which I guess is the mastering, where of course compression/limiting is applied. And Helge Sten did the mastering, not Andrew Scheps, who was called the culprit by somebody earlier. Louder overall doesn't mean the individual tracks are more compressed. There seems to a push around 3khz, though, (hence bitey midrangey) in addition to be mastered quite loud. But defintely not brickwall mastered. It's supposed to be a hard rocking record. And we know the band always goes all in whatever they choose to do. Maybe we're used to their older albums being lower in volume and less harsh in the frequeny range compared to their peers' albums. There always has to be something to complain about. Too loud, too jammy, too prog, too pop, too short, too long, not enough saxofones and vinyl only…
I just put At Empire's End in said software for a radio show along with other new releases and compared to those this one has huge dynamics!
Whatever it is, the sound of this record really puts me off. Whether it’s Scheps, Sten or Sæther’s fault I really dislike it and it’s part of the reason I don’t get any emotional connection with it. The vocal mixing and effects particularly makes it sound very out of the Motorpsycho spirit as I think of it.
The Cosmoctopus thingy rocks pretty hard though, that’s probably my favourite track on an otherwise rather unmemorable album. The main riffs for Kingdom of Oblivion and The United Debased are also decent enough, but not interesting enough to rely so heavily on their grooves. Lady May is also quite nice, but the album just never lifts off and also doesn’t feel cohesive at all so for me this is a pretty big miss, albeit with some quality parts here and there.
Oh, and I don’t hear The Lurker as prog-metal at all. The angular but elliptical patterns with whole tone transposition is straight out of the Robert Fripp school in my opinion. Also a very nice nod to Get Up With It era Miles Davis in the psyched-out mellow section towards the end.
I hava a question. I only have the vinyl version and like the sound very much on a proper Stereo and very good headphones.Is the Dynamics problem maybe only a digital Problem? I consider KoO as their best Dance Album. Its funktional and emotional music at the same Time and the solos are just colors to Freak out totally ðŸ˜
Forgotten to say. I am no Professional. Maybe my ears cannot hear what the Dynamics Problem should be.
@ supernaut: How do you then explain the sterility of sound quite a few people have complained of? Maybe your programs tell you there is not too much compression – I rather trust my ears and feelings. But then I'm an analog freak and used to record my band's stuff on 12 channel tape. I remember we had the sterility problem even then – it depended, who did the mix. So it is probably not (just) compression. I have experienced a lot of people mixing according to theory (fixed frequency values etc.) and forgetting about the warmness of the instrumental sound. Probably this is an ideological debate – but still I find Snah's guitar sound on this album quite unsatisfactory. Probably already too compressed during recording the tracks – or whatever. Probably microphones too close to the amp/speaker. The distortion sounds quite flat to my ears. Place your (Marshall) amp at one end of the room and the mics at the other and turn up the volume! This procedure of course depends on the studio room available with all its sound properties.
I think you could debate endlessly – in the end it is the result that counts.
@ the conscience: It is not the music itself – I consider that really great. Just some special sound properties that put me off a little. Probably I just have too turn up the stereo to full volume
As for myself, I have no perplexity about the quality and the sound of the new album: I find it amazing. Powerful and "doomy" (Kingdom of Oblivion), ironic (The United Debased), soft and intense (At Empire’s End), folkish (The Hunt)… incredibly varied and full of nuances (as usual). So I can't find a reason to complain or to be disappointed. Maybe I’m too “naïveâ€, but I find everything extremely enjoyable. Best album since The Tower. That’s only my opinion, I just write it for a statistical contribution
Motorpsycho's first AOR album. And still a motorpsychedelic album – squaring the circle, I'd say. Clearly a headphone album. I like it the way I liked the Dead's last official studio album "Built to last" – very headphoney
The more I listen to it, the more I think it could have been a 3 EP album, like the Daemon's / Trust Us / LTEC era.
KoO entered on #19 in the German Album Charts. Highest position ever for a Motorpsycho Album in Germany?
Obviously: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorpsycho#Albums
Doesn't mean too much these days – they probably had to sell more albums to reach #80 with Phanerothyme back in 2001.
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