Comus
Printed From: Progarchives.com
Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Prog Recommendations/Featured albums
Forum Description: Make or seek recommendations and discuss specific prog albums
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=27641
Printed Date: November 25 2024 at 03:54
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Topic: Comus
Posted By: OpethGuitarist
Subject: Comus
Date Posted: August 22 2006 at 20:41
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For the fans of First Utterance, where are you? Oh and sorry for my disapperance as of late, no time to forum these days with work and school. ------------- back from the dead, i will begin posting reviews again and musing through the forums |
Replies:
Posted By: Bastille Dude
Date Posted: August 22 2006 at 20:43
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I've heard the streaming mp3 here on PA, and I'm very intrigued by the reviews. It's definetly on my shopping list. ------------- DEATH TO FALSE PROG! |
Posted By: soundsweird
Date Posted: August 22 2006 at 20:46
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That compilation that came out last year ("Song To Comus") is one of the best purchases I've made in the last couple of years........
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Posted By: eugene
Date Posted: August 22 2006 at 20:47
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Amazing album!!! This is probably the first album I can fully agree with the review by Sean Trane.
------------- carefulwiththataxe |
Posted By: dagrush
Date Posted: August 22 2006 at 20:55
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I've grabbed the album, but I haven't listened yet. However, the second part of that won't be true much longer.
------------- http://www.last.fm/user/omgwtfdagrush/"> 
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Posted By: video vertigo
Date Posted: August 22 2006 at 21:06
me too. Really interesting music. ------------- "The rock and roll business is pretty absurd, but the world of serious music is much worse." - Zappa |
soundsweird wrote:Posted By: chamberry
Date Posted: August 22 2006 at 21:07
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One word, Wow! I've had the album for a while now, but I didn't payed too much attention to it, but I poped it out on this summer and I started to enjoy it alot and after repeated listens it became one of my favorite folk albums. It's so unique from what I've heard of folk prog. ------------- 
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Posted By: maani
Date Posted: August 22 2006 at 21:30
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See my 4-star review. Wonderful album.
Peace.
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Posted By: Ty1020
Date Posted: August 22 2006 at 22:13
I bought the compilation of both their albums (I think it's called Song
to Comus?) at a little record shop in New York. I was really happy to
find it; the store had a gigantic prog section but Comus was the only
band I'd heard of 
(I'd like to go back sometime and sort through the hundreds of totally
obscure records to hear something new). I really like First Utterance;
their second album is a bit less impressive but there's still some cool
stuff there. Really good band, overall.
------------- http://www.last.fm/user/Ty1020/"> 
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Posted By: Rocktopus
Date Posted: August 23 2006 at 03:07
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First Utterance is one of my favorite albums of any genre. The two tracks from the Diana EP are just as fantastic. I found the Album/EP on double vinyl in a bookstore. Truly unique. Has to be heard. I think follow up 'To Keep From Crying' is horrible. Try Spirogyra: St. Radigunds instead. ------------- Over land and under ashes In the sunlight, see - it flashes Find a fly and eat his eye But don't believe in me Don't believe in me Don't believe in me |
Posted By: Intruder
Date Posted: August 23 2006 at 03:31
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After searching for years for the first albums from Comus and Spyrogyra, I finally found and purchased both but at extortionate prices. Then, just a few weeks later I find excellent compilations that include basically the entire discographies of both bands at budget prices.
Either way, the first Comus album is a must. Same for the first Spyrogyra record. ------------- I like to feel the suspense when you're certain you know I am there..... |
Posted By: Raff
Date Posted: August 23 2006 at 04:10
I got "Song for Comus" on my last visit to London, and I must admit to totally sharing Rocktopus' view of the second album. No relation at all with the absolute masterpiece of all-out weirdness that is "First Utterance". Disturbing listening for sure, but essential. Ah, and I'll try to find "St Radigunds" as well, though I'm afraid I might find that somewhat difficult. |
Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: August 23 2006 at 04:21
should not be. It got a re-issue with repertoire and another with Korean label SI-Wan. Bells, boots and Shamble
 is also very worthy >> two mini-suites on it.Also deeply recommended
Tea and Symphony's Asylum For The Musically Insane
and
Jan Dukes De Grey's Mice and Rats In the Loft
both quite stunning as well ------------- let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword |
Posted By: Fassbinder
Date Posted: August 23 2006 at 07:33
Right about Comus. The first album is very interesting. Very challenging. The second is just the opposite.
Right about Spirogyra too. Their first (St.Radigund's) and third (Bells, Boots and Shambles) albums are excellent and even fourth (the compilation of demo tracks called Burn the Bridges) is worth listening (to say the least!), whereas the second album (Old Boot Wine) is quite boring and uninspired. There's also a boxset (2 CDs) called Canterbury Tale which covers all their three studio albums; I wouldn't recommend it as it includes the material from the second album and doesn't include the material from Burn the Bridges.
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Posted By: Asyte2c00
Date Posted: August 23 2006 at 10:27
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First Utterance is a masterpiece of folk rock. I love crazy, at times,angst-ridden vocals applied to these beautiful acoustic pieces (i.e. "Diana," "Drip Drip" and "Song to Comus."
On My Second Listen of this album, I noticed Comus' profound influence upon Mike Akerfeldt's music. I forget the tracks in which they appear, but the lyrics "...baying of the hounds.." The title of of the second track on Ghost Reveries. Also, the lyrics "my arms, your hearse" apears in one of the songs as well, which is the title of Opeth's 1998 album. Infact, Akerfeldt helped remaster this lost masterpeice a few years ago. This is what I notcied on my second listen. Check it out.
First Utterance is amazing.
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Posted By: Petra
Date Posted: August 23 2006 at 17:38
Posted By: OpethGuitarist
Date Posted: August 23 2006 at 18:52
Yerp, you caught it buddy. ------------- back from the dead, i will begin posting reviews again and musing through the forums |
Posted By: con safo
Date Posted: August 24 2006 at 17:00
Great album- fans of insane prog folk also check out the brilliant Jan Dukes De Grey (visit their page to hear an 18 minute masterpeice.)
------------- 
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Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: August 27 2006 at 23:01
| I am here! I love Comus!! |
Posted By: kebjourman
Date Posted: October 27 2006 at 09:39
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i just got the 2 disk anthology in the mail
"First Utterance" is one of the best alubms ive ever heard. It's so awesome, sounds like Tyrannosaurus Rex's younger,bolder, more evil and twisted twin
the second album is always called a peice of sh*t and stuff but its really not THAT bad.
Well, it is compared to the debut, but if you think of it as a completely different band, its ok.
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Posted By: Gomah
Date Posted: December 19 2006 at 23:57
I'm here 
I really don't know what to say about First Utterance that hasn't been said before. I got to know the album about a year ago thanks to PA and recently transferred it to my MP3 player and listened to it more carefully. WoW! I can say 
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Posted By: Witchwoodhermit
Date Posted: December 20 2006 at 00:47
Me too
 ------------- Here I'm shadowed by a dragon fig tree's fan ringed by ants and musing over man. |
Posted By: Fassbinder
Date Posted: December 21 2006 at 00:10
I just re-listened to both discs and have to agree -- the second one isn't that bad. It has some interesting tunes...
In some sense, it is even not too bad that we have to have both albums (that's the only way to get them on CD, I believe) -- the second album plays a role of a background, on which the first one really shines!
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Posted By: Detric
Date Posted: January 06 2007 at 06:04
Ive been listening to First Utterance non stop lately. I love this band and their crazy lyrics (something tells me they were on drugs while writing this album  ). To Keep From Crying is a good album as well, but it will never come anywhere near First Utterance. Mikael Åkerfeldt from Opeth is fond of this band as well, and I think the concept behind Still Life was based on First Utterance, if you read the lyrics for White Cluster its pretty obvious. Fantastic band. I love the way PA puts it: "the second album failed to live up to the first and marked the end of Comus, leaving the band to fade away into the depths of obscurity." |
Posted By: Mascodagama
Date Posted: January 06 2007 at 09:15
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I like What We Did On Our Holidays, I love The Pentangle, but First Utterance is the best... |
Posted By: Evans
Date Posted: January 06 2007 at 09:37
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First utterance is my favourite album of all time. Brilliant lyrics, blilliant vocals, brilliant music, brilliant artwork, brilliant title, brilliant last name of lead singer.. (And brilliant bonus tracks on the boxset. Get it, people!) ------------- 
'Let's give it another fifteen seconds..' |
Posted By: Detric
Date Posted: January 06 2007 at 11:57
| ^ Yes, I totally agree! |
Posted By: Reverie
Date Posted: January 06 2007 at 18:59
| I've had First Utterance five days now, and although i haven't listened to it extensively (i got 4 other CDs as well, and 4 more to come) i can still say that it's a good album. The two songs i had heard before i bought it - Drip Drip, and Comus - are the best on there, with Diana, The Herald, and The Bite all being good as well. I don't think Bitten and The Prisoner are as good as the first five tracks though. I might change my mind with time, but for now that's how i see it. |
Posted By: perennial_quest
Date Posted: March 08 2007 at 02:01
I recently bought First Utterance, the Breathless re-issue, and I've been highly disappointed with the sound quality. There's a big section of The Herald and the first 3 minutes of Drip Drip that are marred with huge distortions like the CD would have been mastered from a heavily decomposing LP. Actually Drip Drip is barely listenable because of that.  I have bootlegs sounding better than that!The rest of the album sounds good, though I'm starting to wonder if I should have got Song to Comus compilation instead. As mentionned on the back cover of my CD, Breathless is a joint release of Santuary and Abraxas/Get Back records. I tried contacting the company through the Abraxas website, but it's actually down. So I tried contacting Sanctuary, but so far no response. Have I bought a brand new coaster? Anyone bought that specific edition of the album? If not what edition do you have? Does anyone have other CDs from Breathless? What do they sound like, quality wise? Anyway if you planned to buy First Utterance, better shell extra $$$ for other editions than buying this crappy re-issue. I was wondering if I should've started a new thread about it, but since there was already a thread about Comus, I posted it here. |
Posted By: Cheesecakemouse
Date Posted: March 08 2007 at 03:35
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I heard them a few times and thought they were ok, but I will probably avoid buying their album because I found it a bit dark and as a result a little unhealthy, unlike UV which I can listen for hours, but hey each to his own, still intriguing and creative, just a little too dark for me. ------------- |
Posted By: mrgd
Date Posted: March 11 2007 at 23:51
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I got 'To Keep From Crying' on import when it was first released way back when, on the strength of an elaborate advert in Melody Maker and my mates and I really liked it. Sure, some of the tunes are 'catchy' and more commercially oriented but there are some really nice melodies, nice vocals and interesting compositions ,including the mix of the instruments used.
Having only heard excerpts of 'First Utterance' I can't comment further, but I bet those of us whose introduction to Comus was with TKFC still don't understand the all round bagging it seems to get . In fact it seems that we are probably the lucky ones. We've got FU to look forward to. Yes? But maybe after the brightness of TKFC we may just find FU altogether too dark . Maybe,I'll let you know. ------------- Looking still the same after all these years... mrgd |
Posted By: VanderGraafKommandöh
Date Posted: March 12 2007 at 01:36
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Hang on, is this first time in P.A. history that nobody's disagreed with anyone? Everyone here shares each others' views. Wow! So does nobody hate this album? I love this album, one of my favourite albums of all time. -------------   
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Posted By: stonebeard
Date Posted: March 12 2007 at 01:37
I dislike the sample song I heard. 
------------- http://soundcloud.com/drewagler" rel="nofollow - My soundcloud. Please give feedback if you want! |
Posted By: VanderGraafKommandöh
Date Posted: March 12 2007 at 01:38
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You would, you're a total and utter n00b!
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Posted By: stonebeard
Date Posted: March 12 2007 at 01:47
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Re-listened. It's weird, in a weird way. I still don't like it.
------------- http://soundcloud.com/drewagler" rel="nofollow - My soundcloud. Please give feedback if you want! |
Posted By: VanderGraafKommandöh
Date Posted: March 12 2007 at 01:49
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It's amazing in an amazingly weird way and I love it! Proper dark and gorey music and supremely better and less cheesy than what these black metal bands do. Plus they're a big influence on Mikael Akerfeldt of Opeth. -------------
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Posted By: Uroboros
Date Posted: March 12 2007 at 07:33
By the way, for Opeth fans: if you listen to the lyrics of "Diana" and "Drip Drip" closely, you will find some familiar words in there, like "the baying of the hounds" and "my arms, your hearse", respectively. Akerfeldt quoted these and made them part of Opeth's own lyrical universe.
I love the album too and I consider it an addictive experience. "Drip Drip" particularly is a piece of mean and elegant morbidity conveying a mood that would be hard to match, especially given the style is so unique. I like to thinkof myself as a peaceful and moral person, but I have to admit that song and its lyrics awaken strange feelings in me...  ------------- Tous les chemins qui s’ouvrent à moi ne mènent à rien si tu n’es plus là |
Posted By: Trickster F.
Date Posted: March 12 2007 at 07:42
Drip drip-uh,
Drip drip-uh!
 ------------- sig |
Posted By: Gomah
Date Posted: March 12 2007 at 08:47
The killer lives inside me ...
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Posted By: Uroboros
Date Posted: March 12 2007 at 10:00
Yes, I can feel him move...
 ------------- Tous les chemins qui s’ouvrent à moi ne mènent à rien si tu n’es plus là |
Posted By: jnbek
Date Posted: May 16 2008 at 00:19
| Comus, I love it, the more i hear it the more hooked I get, First Utterance is pure brutality clothed in beauty and peace.. |
Posted By: Pnoom!
Date Posted: May 16 2008 at 18:01
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What's the news on the new album? |
Posted By: zappaholic
Date Posted: May 16 2008 at 20:02
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I finally nailed down a copy of First Utterance about a month ago, based on recommendations here. I must say I'm not normally a fan of acoustic folk music, but this turns out to be quite a fine record. "Diana" has to be my favorite track, as bits of it are frequently lodged in my cranium.....
------------- "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard." -- H.L. Mencken |
Posted By: Prof.
Date Posted: May 18 2008 at 00:57
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I somehow found 'Song To Comus' at an out of town cd shop. From the stream I knew I had to have it.
Drip Drip is one of the greatest songs ever written, Song to Comus will never stop being amazing.
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Posted By: BroSpence
Date Posted: May 18 2008 at 04:09
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I gots First Utterance! About a month ago for 5 bucks. My friend exposed me to the band a few years ago because he got a vinyl reissue and let me borrow it. Its a grooooooood album. The liner notes even tell you its good. I mean David Bowie liked the band a lot. How could they be bad? |
Posted By: One-Eyed Joker
Date Posted: May 18 2008 at 15:45
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i was skeptical, but i picked it up a while ago and it is an instant classic! love it |
Posted By: omri
Date Posted: May 19 2008 at 12:45
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Here I am !
I bought the compilation "Song to Comus" about a year ago. As many here said the second CD is not that bad but far from the amazing "First utterance". I also like "Bite" very very much. And this is one of the very few times that I love the bonus tracks as much as I love the original LP. The b-singles and the prev unreleased "The color of darkness" are excelent. I think this one is a masterpiece !!!
I also purchased a week ago Spyrogyra's "A Canterbury tale" and waiting to Jan dukes de gray which I ordered so this realy hooked me on acid folk. ------------- omri |