Composer Reacts to Ne Obliviscaris - Of Petrichor Weaves Black Noise (REACTION & ANALYSIS)

Bryan reacts to and talks about his thoughts on Of Petrichor Weaves Black Noise
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0:00 Intro
0:39 Reaction
11:24 Analysis - Trying to Understand the Ending
14:30 Analysis - So Many Moving Lines
21:00 Analysis - Driving Energy
24:21 Analysis - Isolated Outro
26:30 Analysis - The Guitar Solo
28:30 Analysis - Clear Production
34:27 Analysis - Lyrical Dive
45:00 Outro
#reaction #metal #neobliviscaris

[@RiannaQueen]

Regarding the lyrics/title: Petrichor is the smell of stone (roads, pavement) after rain. Black noise is, of course, a play of words, on white noise. It's an omimous sound that fills your head after hearing some very bad news or witnessing something terrible. Together it tells of a situation when the protagonist steps outside after having had such bad news and then they smell the scent of a street after a rain shower. It's a song about death and loss and grief.

[@YoruRL]

Of Petrichor Weaves Black Noise is for me the best song from Ne Obliviscaris discography and is contender for my favorite song of all time. The layering and production in the album and well, in all NeO songs are just perfect to my taste. You can hear all the lines individually and there is so many, yet it doesn't sound muddy. The lyrics by Xenoyr are very beautiful and (quite) cryptic too. These guys are really one of a kind and while saddened by the quitting of Dan Presland, i'm all in for every bit of music they'll put out in the future. Looking for the 4th album this year !

[@unwisethefox8808]

Dan presland quit??? Damn

[@jmanwild87]

@@unwisethefox8808 Parted on good terms and started a new band, black lava, by his own words he just felt it was time to move onto something new.

[@unwisethefox8808]

@@jmanwild87 I saw him on the latest release for the new Album - the single Equus. Does that mean he still recorded this single or the whole album?

[@jmanwild87]

Could have been recorded prior to his departure

[@michealpants]

@@unwisethefox8808 yeah he recorded all the drums for the newest album/single.

[@filthycheat3070]

I love when the violin kicks in with it's first, slower solo under the heavy double bass and growls. It really seems chills down my spine every time.

[@Oh_its_Mike]

Hands down their best song.

[@ryanschindler923]

Probably my favorite NeO song, so many great moments. And that clean outro is so beautiful. Gives me goosebumps everytime when the big choir kicks in. These guys really can't do any wrong. The layering and running lines are so nicely done and don't everstep anyone else. Always love to see more NeO!

[@nguyencaotri3879]

oh hell yeah, he is back with more NeO. I swear you read my mind. When I was thinking "what if my fav analysis did Of Petrichor Weaves Black Noise" just yesterday, and you did. This happened once with Painters Of The Tempest. You're a godsend. I wanna add to the meaning of black noise. So white noise is a wall of "meaningless" sound, for us to perceive as no noise, our brain just ignores it. And black noise should be the opposite, which is no sound, but reminds us of actual sound. Petrichor is the soft, subtle and calming smell of oils and chemicals in the soil, tree barks, leaves that we smell AFTER the rain. The rain is often white noise. The smell after the rain is black noise. The smell reminds us of the sound of rain. So I guess this could be a duality, a contrast but also connection between white noise and black noise, between the sky and the earth.

[@AtiTheHedgehog]

I think there's only one song in which Tim does vocals and violin at the same time, and he's explained in the past that it's because, while it's possible for him to sing and play at the same time, it is still pretty challenging because of the way the violin is held and he can't do very demanding vocals while playing.

[@CriticalReactions]

Yup, that was my hunch as well. It's just kinda awkward to do both. Thanks for finding the info on that.

[@alexandergatos2159]

Aaah! What a beautiful surprise. Third NeO/Forget Not song dissection. Always appreciated to get to know in technical terms how the song grips many of us musically uneducated lovers of NeO emotionally and physically. This is their first album and in my humble opinion the best. Pertichor is the smell of wet soil, just imagine how the ground smells after a summer rain. The lyrics, by the way, are heavily influenced by melancholic and artistically macabre imagery, also one finds typically historical references from art, from Botticelli to Goya and well beyond. Any given theme covering a song will invariably intertwine with this base imagery. Small info, Tim Charles is the violinist and clean singer, and a wonderful person at that. The drummer I reckon left the band a couple of months ago. The bassist on this album has also left but only after the second album, Citadel, a couple of years ago if I remember correctly.

[@elpepo01]

Yay! More NeO! This song is just a carousel of emotions. Glad to finally have your thoughts on it. Thanks again Bryan.

[@aidancarpio5151]

OMG MY FAVORITE NEO TRACK! I’m excited to sit down and listen to this!! I’ll edit this to give my thoughts once I finish the video Edit 1: Tim Charles is the violinist and clean vocalist. I'm not entirely sure of the reasoning for not singing and playing at the same time, but I can imagine that playing with the bow right in front of the microphone could get really tricky really fast. Additionally, they do have one song off the newest album called Eyrie that has violin and clean vocals simultaneously. When they play it live, Tim's wife plays the second violin part. Edit 2: Their melody writing is phenomenal, and is what helped me get into them. I didn't like harsh vocals when I started listening to NeO, but their absolutely gorgeous music helped me understand and love harsh vocals. Also Xenoyr's lyrics are really fascinating to dig into, lots of reference to classical works and metaphorical sayings. I really love them. Edit 3: I think you also checked out As Icicles Fall and Forget Not from this album, so you've heard a good portion of it! Thank you for reacting to this!! I really appreciate hearing your thoughts on it.

[@billybobthekidiswack]

he reacted to forget not

[@berserker8884]

One of favorites! Opeth level music, which means one of top 10 favorite albums for sure.

[@user-pt4ic1qu5q]

Doesn’t mean anything by the way

[@christopherjohn84]

I’ve never been so excited to watch a reaction. Thank you Brian! You still have a bunch of amazing NeO tracks to checkout (they’re all good) but Devour me Colossus has to be next. Thank you for such an unbiased and technical insight into their music 🙏

[@FarazOloumi]

So the noises are described by color like that based on their frequency content while analogously being related to color bases. So as a hypothetical example, if we had low mid, and high frequency bands, you'd related them to say red, green, blue, and by that definition, white noise would be one that has all types of frequency content, like the color white consisting of all 3 main colors. And by that definition, black noise would be devoid of any sound, or silence (well technically it could also be infrasound, or frequencies that humans can't hear, but in theory, it's no sound or silence).

[@tonyg7143]

great song! thank you for introducing this to me, the discovery of new bands / songs, its why I really appreciate your channel.

[@celestialcolosseum]

My fav song from them, hope you do a full NeO album as well!

[@maaaaaap]

yeah, one of my favourites. it's interesting how the whole song is basically(not literally) 2 chords going back and forth, yet it still manages to take you on a journey. the bass is pretty silent if you consider how many different ideas it has to add to this song. i didnt notice some of the tapping riffs until i specifically concentrated only on the bass

[@patrickhaley1312]

We make the same face when we listen to Ne Oblivicaris

[@mickjager]

Still waiting for you to cover the other two songs of the Citadel album. You did painters of the tempest already, but phyrric has one of the most beautiful outro's ever and devour me colossus the best build imo. Either way always love me some NeO

[@amarok9097]

Totally Agree.

[@shunbatsu]

dare i say the best band ever, atleast in modern times

[@vulshok1869]

"Liberame" comes from spanish, it means "set me free" or to liberate someone from imprisonment or confinement. I think they are speaking about the soul of the woman who was killed.

[@einarthegolden8637]

Liberame in Spanish comes from Latin "Libera Me" which is more likely what they're actually saying, but nonetheless it's the same thing since the meaning is left unaltered from Latin

[@RiannaQueen]

Or Liberame refers to the survivor? Maybe they want to be free from the grief and loss and love and broken heart?

[@redduskironsky1058]

I had been looking to see a reaction of this song, it is my absolute favorite from these guys. I love it.

[@scottrobinson4611]

This is probably my favourite NeO song and I've spent a huge amount of time replaying their 3 albums over and over again. I particularly love the long outro - It makes me feel emotions that none of their other songs do. I get a sort of nostalgic sense of longing from the outro.

[@Brombit]

White is all the colors 🤓 in light. White noise has all the frequencies a human can hear, just like white light. So "black noise" would be silence.

[@CriticalReactions]

And that's why I'm not an artists. 😅 Though maybe there is *some* truth to my statement. Technically white is the inclusion of all *light*. But if I wanted to make black using paint I'd have to mix a bunch of colors. Combining all the colors would never make white. At least this is where my thought process was when I made those statements

[@Brombit]

@@CriticalReactions In colors of matter (material?) it's true 🤓 they are the opposite of colors in light, because they are about the light that's absorbed instead of reflected.

[@janeg6759]

I really liked this. I'll have to check out the album.

[@muskett00]

Petrichor is one of my favourite words. It's the earthy smell that permeates the air just before it starts raining, where it is raining nearby. I nearly didn't listen to this one due to 'black metal fatigue', although I also enjoyed the previous track too. This one was excellent musically and I'm happy to allow it as an exception to my normal tastes.

[@scottrobinson4611]

Regarding labelling noise with colours - there is some sense to it. Colours relate to light, each colour corresponds to a photon frequency. The colour white is the product of an even mixture of the entire visible spectrum. White noise consists of a range of different sound frequencies with equal intensities. Other 'colours' of noise extend this principle to sounds with uneven power spectra (intensity varies with frequency). 'blue noise' would be biased towards higher frequencies, and 'red noise' towards lower ones. The popular ones like 'brown' and 'pink' are based on this, with a little liberty taken for the labelling of the colours (e.g. there is no 'pink' frequency of light - pink is just a light red). Anyway... By this trend, "Black noise" is complete silence, auditory darkness. A lack of light >>> a lack of sound.

[@thathorridthing]

Never heard this band before, now I gotta check wm out! Thanks for a nother excellent vid dude! ❤️

[@chitoge4321]

Freaking love this song. so underrated... You might want to react to Black Crown Initiate - Belie the Machine .. Nice Reaction btw...

[@Panda_SMM]

I need their new album asap

[@MJ-vd8bj]

That fucking riff

[@pete26196]

Tim has done simultaneous Vocals + Violins on later albums. Not major parts but I think small bits in Libera pt. 1 and Eyrie from the album Urn from what I remember, maybe more on other songs. Really enjoy the analysis!

[@iggypopdrop3509]

Cool ending

[@jacobfoust6319]

Can't wait till you get to their newest album

[@ioandoo5347]

Heeey I commented before, but I would love for you to check their "Urn" album. Libera part 1 and 2 give off insane feelings throughout. Also Eyrie and Intra venus are amazing.

[@kevinwatts1842]

Colour is vibration

[@jasonadams2]

Drudkh - Furrows of Gods, atmospheric black metal. Plz

[@Need4Needle]

is there a song in neo where there are suspended harshes and rythmic cleans? i think it would be very interesting!

[@CriticalReactions]

Oooo good question. I'll hoping someone can point one out because it's always the opposite in my experience.

[@progperljungman8218]

Except... black is the absence of everything and white is all colour (or all of the light spectrums) Anyways, gorgeous album closing song and a great reaction and analysis 👌

[@GuerillaBunny]

White noise refers to a background sound that is constant, like static, and allegedly drowns all other sounds in recordings from that space (ie. in some agent movies), but is inaudible to the human ear. Black noise would logically be the opposite of that. Whatever that means...

[@CriticalReactions]

Can totally see this -- cuz it's my same perspective on less clear production 😅 What we're personally looking for in an overall production isn't being utilized and it sounds off from what we enjoy.

[@thegrimner]

Funny how you said that the production sells the band for you, because at times it is what keeps me from enjoying it as much as I probably could otherwise. While I can appreciate and be dazzled by all the moving parts and understand how they necessitate a clear production, NeO at times err too much on the side of clinical to my ears, with everything sounding a bit too precise. Triggered drums are a part of it. I understand that it's nigh on impossible for drummers to be both this fast, this precise and this perfectly even without triggering at least the kick drums, but I find that sometimes it actually detracts from the intended intensity, for me. I can still quite enjoy most of NeO despite the production quibbles, but this is quite likely one of the reasons why I can gush over black metal, and thrash, and doom, but I tend to steer clear of a lot of death metal, for example. it all sounds a bit too unintentionally sterile to me, the other song of the night (Aeon) being the perfect example of that. I can appreciate bands who make a thematic statement of that sterility, and I can appreciate bands who, like NeO, have enough soul and raw talent to preserve their evocative emotion despite the production, but there needs to be a bit of grit for me, or at least the illusion that, for all the clarity, what I'm listening to is the sound of all the instruments playing in a same room together, all audible but blending into a whole, if that makes sense.

[@CriticalReactions]

I can see that perspective -- because it's exactly how I feel about less clear productions 😅 What we're looking for in an overall sound isn't being utilized and that makes it sound off or lesser. We can appreciate the music but wish it had different qualities to the sound.

[@thegrimner]

@@CriticalReactions to steal your catchfrase, I like my music to be critical, not clinical.

[@CriticalReactions]

@@thegrimner 🤣

[@jonathanhenderson9422]

I remember saying on the last NeO video that they're a band whose excellence always impresses me even though I always find find them falling short of the WOW effect I get from a band like Opeth. Still, every time we listen to tracks in isolation like this I find myself appreciating them more than I did when I went through their discography. Part of that may be because tracks in isolation don't have the problem of the sound/style running together over the course of an album. As always with them, there's just so much tasty and tasteful stuff here, especially with regards to the melody. Compared to a band like Opeth they definitely leaned more into classic melodeath influences, especially in the riffs where I hear a lot of early Dark Tranquility, which is still my benchmark for classic melodeath. Still not quite hitting the WOW effect, but definitely hitting the "Oh my, this is really damn good" effect! As for the various noises (from someone who's spent too much time measuring/tweaking audio gear with them): Pink noise = all audible frequencies but with -3db as it moves up octaves. Pink noise sounds "flat" to human ears because we are less sensitive to lower frequencies. White noise = all audible frequencies at equal volume. White noise is most useful for measuring audio gear to make sure they measure flat, though pink noise is useful for hearing if they SOUND flat. Brown noise = like pink noise but with -6db as it move sup octaves (think a powerful waterfall). Black noise = silence. EDIT: "Libera me" means "deliver me" in Latin. You were close!

[@toprak3479]

You might as well react to the rest of this album in one go, it's 3 more tracks

[@progrockplaylists]

youre so fast on noticing everything. as if it was an interview directly with the artist

[@MERE.1479]

The song is beautiful but lyrics has no sense