The neoclassical thread.

Talk, knaves.

I started listening to Kashiwa Daisuke's "88" today after finding it in the post. I'm very thrilled with the new direction he's taken his music (from IDM to almost complete piano musings, hence the titular function of 88 keys) and even provides a few throwbacks to previous iterations of his tracks (specifically April.#02). He or his label posted on YouTube a teaser video for the album, which I'll post along with the album below. Feel free to submit albums or merely talk about the genre.

Kashiwa Daisuke's Ohka:



Get it here.

Every time I hear the phrase "neoclassical" I think of some hack guitarist like Malmsteen. This is pretty awesome though.

Steve Vai, Joe Satch, Buckethead, Michael Angelo Batio, Rusty Cooley

Huge hacks that I think of too when I hear that

Can you define the genre for us

I hate how he abuses that term. I recall reading an interview from Malmsteen once where he stated "I don't even listen to music, really -- all I do is listen to classical music once in a while and try to do what they do. But because of my technique..." and devolves into vacuous tripe about how great of a guitarist he is.

Arpeggios... from Hell.

Of course. Grade A crock right there. You're going to run into that from any of these virtuoso dipshits and it's unavoidable.

By neoclassical, I (and the rest of the people that give a damn) truly mean a departure from traditional classical and an adoption of modernization in composition, production and execution. It is not conventional but it utilizes similar instrumentation. It isn't afraid to flirt with samples. A great place to start would be Max Richter or that fine gentleman up there. Arcana, Sophia (Sweden), a few of Current 93's albums (Hypnagogue, especially), a few of Ulver's albums (specifically parts of Shadows of the Sun, A Quick Fix of Melancholy EP), Dead Can Dance, Chaostar, Dargaard.... et cetera. I honestly hate doing the whole name dropping thing because I know you can't be fucked to look all that up, but I wouldn't dare mention anything not worth listening to.

Does neoclassical metal even truly exist?

I would avoid blurring that line because then you end up with the overly gothic shit like Sirenia, Trail of Tears and in some cases, Septicflesh (which, for all intents and purposes of this post, are completely bad ass and outside the realm of suckage.) It's either that or you get metal with more choirs and strings than guitars and here comes walking tits #174 and the Nightwishmobile to ruin fucking everything... and the stars go marching sadly to their home.

The only neoclassical metal band I could possibly pigeonhole would be Arcturus and even that is naming a chicken a peacock. It isn't meant to be done from where I stand but I've been proven wrong before.

Bam?

Mick Moss is known for his fascination with that sort of thing, but his works gravitate more towards rock, folk or ambient than they do neoclassical. However, I'll go on record saying I do love Antimatter (very eager for their new album in the fall) and everything Duncan Patterson touches. Shame Anathema went and overdosed on happy pills and decided they weren't "depressed" anymore, and ended up with the pile we call Hindsight. Suffice to say, it pissed Patterson off enough to the point where, after making a neoclassical endeavor of his own (see Ion), decided to uproot the name of an album he worked on extensively and formed a band that would continue where they decided to fuck it up. Now that's the way you do it.

I seem to recall some other band doing the same thing without the name.

Anyway, moving on... Opus Nigrum. Let the racist jokes permeate the thread. ON are a fairly recent act, borrowing influence from the likes of Peter Bjärgö's back catalog and DCD for a very enthralling engagement. Download link after the preview.

Opus Nigrum's Time is Over



You thief.

Wow, this is pretty. Do want... Thanks for sharing

I'm very partial to Nachtreich.


Autumn Tears is cool too, but it has a very gothic vibe which might not be appealing to most

Kashiwa Daisuke is really great, but I think it's one of those things that takes more than a few listens to truly sink in. I have April #2 and Program Music and they both seem to be pretty awesome listens. The electronics mixed in are really the biggest thing to get a taste for, but once you listen a few times it blends really well, and at the very least the contrasts make it very interesting.

Nachtreich is interesting in a different way, throw in some metal elements and remove the electronic ones. I think that would be the best definition of neoclassical metal. Although the sample I provided didn't really have any metal elements to speak of. All of that garbage like Malmsteen has really nothing to do with classical music as far as I'm concerned. I can play some random scales really fast too, it doesn't make it impressive.