February 8, 2021 What's Red, White and Black and blows the speakers out of my car doors and August 22 and November 2022 updates
After I listened through Isolate and Medicate for the week, I was really wanting to hear more new music so I choose Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum. This is the back cover:
I listened to this album cold, not having heard any of the songs before except the acoustic version of Dangerous posted on You Tube. [https://youtu.be/tCmBhd7bqJ8]. I do love the acoustic version because of the music but also because I can see how the instruments are played. I watch the show, "How It's Made" which shows the manufacture of different things such as Crayons, Chocolate, Guitar Strings and just about everything else you can think of. How people do their jobs is also very interesting. A job that looks simple is much more complex that it seems from the outside. Shaun and Corey playing the guitars is most familiar to me, since I play the guitar [home version only]. Dale's bass looks somewhat familiar, but I have little frame of reference for drums. Now John is not even playing the drums in the acoustic video, just a box with his bare hands in front of the drum set. O.K., he plays a box bare-handed better than most people play the drum set, but I understand what he's doing. [Update: It's called a cajon*] There is a really interesting interview from 2017 called Rig Rundown - Seether's Shaun Morgan and Dale Stewart from PremierGuitar. Shaun and Dale discuss instruments and other equipment. I do pretty well with the guitar descriptions. I get a little iffy when Shaun moves on to the pedal board, "As you can see it's very simple … there's a regular delay, flanger, chorus set up … my favorite's the DD7] Once he and Dale move into the amps setup, I'm lost. Now, my dad was into electronics, building his own board and such, so the equipment is passingly familiar, but I definitely get the same feeling when my husband talks about car engines and parts. I don't have a good frame of reference. Well Shaun and Dale have been working at this job for over 20 years. If they came to my jobsite, I bet they wouldn't understand all my equipment either.On to Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum**
1) Dead and Done. Less than a minute in and you know what you're getting with this album. Dead and Done is like a cover letter for this album. Hard, full sound from the beginning, interesting rhythm and extra sounds and Shaun ending the verse screaming, "I'm fucking dead." What more could you want?
2) Bruised and Bloodied. Builds up at the introduction and tones back down at the start of the lyrics. I can really hear the bass on this one. The verse keeps building up through the chorus and then goes back down again for the second verse. Builds up more and more until it's stops dead and it's over, leaving me sort of breathless. I love all the sound elements in this song, there is so much to listen to. The music video was also a treat. Is it just me, or were the guys 6ft distancing? Maybe they were just trying not to wack into each other with their instruments. [I played the violin when I was a kid and my mom accompanied me on the piano. I would stand beside her and accidently bow right into her face on the downstroke, or upstroke if I was standing on her other side. Yeah, she wasn't too thrilled with that.]
3) Wasteland. Made me remember what it was like to be a teenager, more accurately, how it feels. And what it was like to be the parent of teenager. Shaun's voice even sounds younger. I can't say enough about the lyrics. Even the last screaming "now" is perfect. God Almighty is this song good. August 22. I appreciated the animated music video when it came out in 2020 (The Year that Must Not Be Named). They have just released an official music video which is awesome. Not to mention the new EP Purgatory with both regular and acoustic versions. Not to mention the Deluxe Edition with 4 previously unreleased tracks [September 2022].
4) Dangerous. I like to kiss Dale for that bass line. Figuratively. I don't know which version I like better. Acoustic or from the album. Just don't make me choose. Corey's guitar work is just lovely. The album version has a fuller sound. Double voice with some echo. Complete, full drum work supporting the rest of the music like the corner stone in in an arch. I could listen to the bass and guitar sections all day. The build up of tension on this one is incredible. Then it drops into the signature guitar line before the last chorus is sung and then stops like it's hitting smack into a wall. Guys, this just encourages me to start the song all over again.
5) Liar. One of my favorites among the favorites on this album. The lyrics and singing are so gorgeous they make my heart hurt. The music is so wide and complete it's like listening to a symphony orchestra. This song is why I love Seether. It's a smorgasbord of sound.
6) Can't Go Wrong. Hard chugging guitar. Rock all the way. And then just single notes leading to a lyrical verse and then a more rock chorus. The chorus almost harkens back to the sound of rock in the 80's.
7) Buried in the Sand. Oh dear. I just said Liar was one of my favorites and Buried in the Sand has got to be my favorite. My other favorite? The acoustic version sounds cleaner. The simplicity of the sound means you can hear every note on the instruments and voices. Gorgeous. The album version covers the same song and it sounds just as incredible in it's own way. If you listen to them side by side John starts with the drumbeat either simple rhythm by hand or the same notes on the drum kit. Then the guitar and bass come in. The gentle sound acoustically is still charged with energy. The album version is crackling with electricity. Bass and guitar echo each other at points and then separate again. The electric sound with the electric instruments is almost painfully intense and beautiful. The lyrics are likewise, but for me they are beautiful and painfully intense. Fantastic. I didn't get past listening to this one for a while.
8) Let It Go. I don't think I love this one, but I love listening to it. Hostile. And the chorus, "Well I don't feel like getting older, I just feel like getting numb." This is uncomfortably close to the way I'm feeling. Can you love a song and be ambivalent about it? Evidently.
I'm more than halfway through the album so I'll stop for the night. Thanks, all.
PS. There is a episode of How It's Made on electric guitars, too. Season 6, episode 11. I like the food ones because it reminds me of going to the dairy on a school field trip. Em
*A Cajon is a box-like instrument that the percussionist sits on and uses their hands, palms, and fingertips to create sound.
**This link is just for Shaun, so he doesn't have to keep pronouncing Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum for people who are too lazy to look it up.
PSS. August 22 And, by the way, if we all would learn to pronounce his actual last name, it would be nice. See interview from 2008 and practice, practice, practice. (Personal note: when mom expected us to do something she said, "It would be nice if...", pronouncing "nice" like a verbal command).
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