Head says no, heart says yes

I see that you also posted the request for new extreme metal recommendations.  I really like riverside and like this album a lot, but to call it metal is quite a stretch.  Duda's voice is extremely melodic and he only rarely uses harshness.  From what I've heard of Riverside, only Anno Domini High Definition is particularly aggressive.

Dayvenkirq wrote:  Then I better start warming up to it now.

condor wrote: I recently bought Second Life Syndrome by Riverside. My first reaction was a voice in my head going "this is rubbish" but at the same time the hairs on the back of my hands were going up. Any examples of where the body contradicts the brain?

If my heart says yes, my head doesn't say "no," but "why?".

Great minds have pondered this for some time

Thank god that video didn't play for me!

condor wrote: I recently bought Second Life Syndrome by Riverside. My first reaction was a voice in my head going "this is rubbish" but at the same time the hairs on the back of my hands were going up. Any examples of where the body contradicts the brain?

For me, when I like the music, I try to just enjoy it, without overanalyzing the reasons, that might come later, but I always go with my personal taste. I'm done trying to intelectualize everything, and I prefer to allow my feelings take over instead, at least when it comes to music, or art in general.

^ Herc was probably just joshing.

I wouldn't allow my brain to object against something that I just like, without analysis (I may ask the brain, "why", but I won't always get an answer). On the other hand, I'm fine with acquired tastes, that is, learning to appreciate something with much help of thought and analysis. I try to find and use diverse ways to appreciating something.

Certain melodies speak to certain people very personally and emotionally; I don't think it's possible to find rational explanations for this (or at least I haven't found them yet). Apart from all concerns with complexity and any rational explanations, Camel were always able to come up with melodies that spoke to me directly. Other examples (from the non-prog world) are the Comsat Angels and, yes really, Nik Kershaw. It's just the magic of music, which works in very personal ways, often not communicable and incomprehensible to others.

I contributed a bit to research about music perception. From my experiences with this I can say that subjective music perception is among the least predictable and most chaotic things there is.