#so i'm very glad for spiritbox

[eriong]

𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒕𝒏𝒆𝒚 𝒍𝒂𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒆 // 𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒃𝒐𝒙

[aturnipsingularity]

Turnip, what's YOUR album of the year if you had to pick one? Pitch it to me, infect me with ur music taste

Okay, so I can't pick just one, so I'll throw a handful of my faves that I discovered this year into the ring. The most recent would be Eternal Blue by Spiritbox. Underrated alt/prog metal band, and I haven't heard a whole lot of others talking about them. I really like the way the first couple of tracks blend together, and the lead vocalist has an amazing voice. She has this really melodic singing that meshes well with her death growl. I also really like that there's a good mix of slower songs with the harder music. There's a lot of good variety, and the pacing is really nice.

Favorite song: Silk In The Strings

I also finally listened to The Death of Peace of Mind by Bad Omens this year. I had heard a couple of their singles before, but I hadn't checked out the full work until recently. I was really glad I did, because it's amazing. Lots of bangers in there, 10/10 would recommend. I really enjoy metal/post-hardcore in general, but the synths and electronics give the music a really nice boost to the energy (see one of my fave albums of all time -- Trauma by I Prevail). It makes it really punchy, and I love that!

Favorite song: ARTIFICIAL SUICIDE or bad decisions

I also want to recommend Take Me Back to Eden by Sleep Token, because I was very hyped for it to come out this year. However, I was let down a little bit and do have a few reservations about the album in general. I think it's great. The vibe of it is really ethereal, and I appreciate the fluidity of the songs in terms of tone and sound. But, it suffers from a lack of variety in tempo. A lot of the songs are slower, and the sequencing itself doesn't lend any room for picking up the energy it loses after the first 5 songs. I also hate the songs Are You Really Okay? and DYWTYLM. They don't feel like they belong. At all. They feel like filler/billboard top 100 and less of this otherworldy, almost ghostly sound they're trying to go for. It also took me a few listens to come around to Ascensionism and The Apparition, but I do really appreciate those songs, and I really quite like them now. It's a really good album that took a few misteps. The Summoning is so good, though. There's a reason it's their most popular song. If you're going to listen to it, I would recommend listening in the following order, because it's the best one I've found for right now. Although it's also not perfect by far, and you can hear the tonal shift after the first three songs, I think it feels a bit more balanced. I can't say I'm quite satisfied with it, but it's still a lot better imo

Drop Are You Really Okay? and DYWTYLM. Don't put them in the playlist.

1. Chokehold

2. Vore

3. The Summoning

4. Aqua Regia

5. Ascensionism

6. The Apparition

7. Granite

8. Rain

9. Euclid

10. Take Me Back to Eden

Favorite song: Euclid or Chokehold

And a small honorable mention to these albums that I finally got to listen to, but don't have enough thoughts on (yet) to rant about:

So Much (For) Stardust by Fall Out Boy

Rain City Drive by Rain City Drive

The Click (Deluxe Edition) by AJR (don't judge me I really like them)

Opal (original soundtrack) by Jack Stauber

Frontiers by Journey

Empire by Queensrÿche

4 by Foreigner

I really should have listened to the older albums sooner, but I just never got around to it -- even though I know multiple songs from each one.

I'll eventually talk about all of the other entries on this list, as well as my all-time favorites (not listed) and the other couple of recents I have yet to finish. Mostly just because I like talking about music lmao but today is not that day. Also you have to tell me about your music taste now!

[anotherghoul666]

I'm back with more questions! 7, 10 and 11!

Hell yeah, I'm so glad to get more, those are pure domapine hits for me, I love it! You're rad Traayaa!

7. If you use song lyrics, which artist’s songs did you pull from the most? So, I don't use song lyrics in my fics much, especially in a fandom like Ghost where I want to make a point to make my characters fictionnal and distance them from the real world and real music the artists produce as much as possible. I did think of including some lyrics in This Could All Be Yours because it's so heavily music-based, but I chose against it because of that. I did hint at the songs I would have used. I described the song genres as close as I could without being too on the nose for each dance scene, and I even hinted at lyrical content during Rain's lapdance, when Swiss sets up his playlist. It's a wink and a nod to the readers who'll know the music the Ghost musicians produce outside of Ghost enough to recognize immediatly what I'm hinting at, but it's also distanced enough from the original material that it'll go right over people's heads if they don't already know the songs very well. Which is the sweet spot I want to hit. The only actual pieces of song lyrics I used in my fics are the titles, which are all lyrics from various Spiritbox songs :D Currently one of my favorite bands, very tied to Ghost because they opened for the Imperatour and apparently will open next year too, but it's a whole other separate band so that feels safe in my brain!

10. What work was the quickest to write? Surface Tension. I got the idea, didn't outline shit, sat down to write, wrote it in two writing sessions, edited it, corrected it without a beta to the best of my ability, and posted it on ao3 within 48 hours. That has never happened to me and likely will never happen again XD I suspect a possession by Satan / a nudge from Lucifer to get me to join the fandom and put me on the path of the wonderful people and friends I met here.

11. What work took you the longest to write? Oh jesus, This Could All Be Yours hands down. Because of all the life shit that happened at the same time. I started it around mid-November, I got it out on December 22nd. This beast took me a month and a half. Not of constant writing mind you, but still. That's a long ass time for me to spend in one place xD