For those of you who don't know, @Logan released a new Zweihänder album called "Höllental" just a few days ago. In my opinion Höllental is Logan's best work yet and I highly recommend the album to anyone who has an ear for 8-bit/chip tune music, plus if you buy it you're directly supporting the Tek Syndicate crew. The new album has been met with a lot of acclaim; here's what some users on Bandcamp are saying about it:
Andy Sharp: "Wonderful album, great mixture of dark metal influences and electronic sound. Especially love the non-8-bit sounds, such as the strings and choral bits." Chris Tanti: Love it, beautifully orchestrated and evocative, I have fond memories of Super Castlevania on the SNES and this conjures up elements but with its own original excellence. Gabriel Blais-Duchesne: Logan does it again! Amazing chipmusic album with a good amount of variety in it. Much recommended addition to your collection. Shay Neary: an atmospheric, emotional narrative told without words. One of the best albums of 2015.
as you can see it is evident that people are really enjoying the new album (including myself) and again if you are interested in @Logan's music you can check it out here. My favorite track is a battle between "Road to Nowhere" and "Slay The Chopper"
I personally feel it's a mixed bag. I can tell a lot of inspiration came from old songs. Which isn't a bad thing, it just seems they use it a bit too much. I remember the first two albums were really different from each other, while this seems to be a remix/mashup of the two. Some of these mashups are good, but then others seem to be like Google Translate translating music into different genres - they just feel awkward and out of place, and honestly a bit repetitive. There are new songs that do not rely on old ones for inspiration, but obviously those are not as common. My favorite song is Sorry, You're Out of Time. It seems Logan mashed so many old rhythms together with new chord progressions that the songs do not have a lot of structure or buildup, making it seem a bit rushed (which I guess it would be since they lost some of their songs with the dead NAS, but still...). Some of the songs sounded really promising at first, like Road to Nowhere, which sounded really promising at the start, but ended up seeming repetitive and intentionally stretched to increase the length of the album. I guess part of it is that it seems to revolve around the same basic rhythm, which isn't a bad thing, but it seems to only be that same basic rhythm, but with different chords and a few transition sections between said chords. I can tell this also has some experimental stuff, like the voices in Baphomet on the Keys were unlike anything I had heard before, but I feel like the mix of old and new rhythms was badly done. I bet it would have been better if the NAS had not died, but I still have to wonder how much better it really would have been.
I'm still going to buy the album to support the crew, but this was a let down. I remember first hearing Ear Slayer and being instantly hooked. Then, when Nitheren came out, it was my primary listening for the next few months. Ear Slayer made me tap my feet to the beat every time (which isn't too hard since I have always been a marching band geek, but still, I usually don't feel the need to tap along). Nitheren made me want to bang my head back and forth until I got a headache with its addictive beat. This album has made me feel like doing neither. So much buildup and then the letdown. The music featured in the videos was really cherry-picked. They were still great sections, don't get me wrong, and some of them might become ringtones for me, but I just honestly doubt I will listen to this album more than 10 times.
I like the fact that some of the songs (at least the first five) are longer, over 4 minutes long. The previous albums had some decent melodies but they didn't have much time to develop.
Great points. I don't have a basic understanding of music theory so I'm going to have to trust your very persuasive argument. After listening to the album a few times I had noticed how the endings to some of the songs are very awkward, however on the Bandcamp page Logan had noted this as a fault in the album so I can't say I didn't know what I was getting into:
Logan's description on the Hollental album page: ultimately had to leave a few songs off or give them awkward endings. I decided to devote time to the newer songs since they were better, in my opinion.
I feel that some of the longer songs were better (Slay the Chopper, Bite, Dragons Must Be Lonely, You Missed Your Train, Road to Nowhere, Sorry You're Out Of Time) than the shorter ones (Kobolds Everywhere, Inaction, Hell's Valley, Somewhere Else)
I'd agree with that. I think the two Forest songs together are also very good.
Though, I must admit I really dig the darkwave vibe I get from Hell's Valley. I'd love to hear a 10 minute darkwave epic from Zweihänder. I guess that also would be a great fit for a video game if there was an incredibly dark, depressing section.
Damn dude... that is harsh and totally your own opinion. One fact that you got wrong was that I only used the melody from one previous song... that was the train... and I like to do that because the idea here is to make a game some day and themes will be re-used... it's more of a score in that way.
You don't have to like the repetitive songs and the last album might be more your style, but I'm a lot more proud of this album... even if it bothers the more musical people.
I'm going to have to give the Album at least a week more before I finalize my opinion on it. I'm ignorant when it comes to the whole darkwave thing, so I'm going to have to do a little more musical exploring. Are you familiar with Darkwave? If so could you recommend any tracks/artists?
@Logan Thanks for the recommendation. I LOVE Perturbator, glad his tracks made it on the Hotline Miami games - I had no idea his style is Darkwave. On a side note "Future Club" is a daily listen for me, great song.
I'm enjoying the album thus far! Listening now while working. It makes great background music, I mean that in a good way. Too early to say which is my favourite track, so I will just say, "another happy listener here!"
Considering that @Logan crafted the album as a score for a [to be released sometime in the future] Zweihänder video game, I'd take your comment about Hollental making for great BGM as a compliment. On a side note Hollental is a great listen while playing Binding of Issac: Rebirth (especially with the new expansion), you should definitely give it a try if you've got the game.
I would love to use and see Zweihänder in an orchestra setting. If I ever get approval from a school orchestra that is on my doorstep I will get crazy excited.
It's supposed to be a game score? That actually makes this make a lot more sense, as typically game music needs to loop smoothly without breaking immersion, and this music will loop way more smoothly than the previous albums. And with that, I can see why you made the tracks long. Better to have a changing chord structure (which provides some "movement," if that is the right term) than just have a 10-20 second loop like I have heard in some games, especially since it at least builds a bit (albeit without a satisfying release, but then again if it does have a really good release it makes a loop seem more like a loop and breaks immersion some, so...it's a trade-off). As a game soundtrack, it actually sounds a lot more appropriate. You should probably add a tag like "future game OST" to the album.
If you made a re-release of the album and removed a lot of the repetition, and added more satisfying endings for the buildups, I would be really happy (even if the songs were 1/2 their current length). But then again the consensus in this thread seems to be the opposite, so feel free to ignore me.
I got it for free for being in the music video, glad that I did. I would hate to have to internet to listen to it. I hope that some time soon I can get the two older albums, can't think of the names off the top of my head, would be nice to have all three. I highly recommend it, for anyone. Even ones that don't like 8-bit music.
I think metal covers would sound amazing. They're already structured like metal songs (most of them at least) and I think would sound epic with a full band covering them.