Metal is getting worse and worse

[watson503]

I just saw the band Oxygen Destroyer last night at my local metal bar. It was ripping fast death metal with a bit of an old school Death vibe to it. I hadn't seen or heard them before last night, but they tore it up. I guess they just released their third album.

Great band - they're making the rounds and were here last weekend with Drawn and Quartered but I didn't make it out there.

 

[Shask]

My biggest problem with a lot of new metal is that to me everything sounds like extreme eq'ed plug ins, clicky drum loops, and some kid doing a shitty impression of 90's euro black/death metal singers from europe. its redundant, its forgettable, its a genre where everything has been done to death. i still love my classic favorites, but i've moved on.

Yeah, it is really hard to find something unique enough that it stands out. Most of it turns into background noise.

 

[Shask]

If you want seriously impressive right hand acrobatics, you need to listen to Wes Hauch on Alluvial:



That's a right hand that will beat your ear drums to dearh

This is one of those bands that have great playing, but the guitar tone is so mid quacky it grates on my ears and I cant listen to it because of that.

 

[BeZo]

Great band - they're making the rounds and were here last weekend with Drawn and Quartered but I didn't make it out there.

Yeah, same tour. We missed Inoculation because we came from a different show, but Drawn & Quartered was pretty good too.

 

[anomaly]

My biggest problem with a lot of new metal is that to me everything sounds like extreme eq'ed plug ins, clicky drum loops, and some kid doing a shitty impression of 90's euro black/death metal singers from europe. its redundant, its forgettable, its a genre where everything has been done to death. i still love my classic favorites, but i've moved on.

Moved on to what?? Country? Rap? Country-hop?

 

[inyarak74]

I actually like the new Armored Saint stuff but agree that metal is going to adjust again:

Always really liked Bush’s voice

 

[inyarak74]

i find the lyrics very touching

Bullfrog vocals

 

[DanTravis62]

This is one of those bands that have great playing, but the guitar tone is so mid quacky it grates on my ears and I cant listen to it because of that.

Yeah I can't even give this band a chance because the production is so lame

every time i try to listen to music like this my brain just starts saying "oh boy, another metal band with ultra mid boosted drop z guitar tone and steven slate drum samples amazing, maybe you should go play baldurs gate or elden ring instead"

It's just so god damned generic I can't even stand more than 30 seconds of it

 

[JimAnsell2]

Moved on to what?? Country? Rap? Country-hop?

Well what i moved on to also has a lot to do with other things in my life. I'm a much happier, open minded, and energetic person now at 43, than i was when i got into metal in my angsty, super pissed off, disillusioned youth. I know it sounds silly to the average dude here, but as far as new music, and stuff from the last 10 years? asian pop music (K-pop mostly) all day. the girl groups specifically. The reasons being are that the standards for pop music are a lot higher over there. The producers and writers of these songs are the unsung heros for sure. we know that these groups aren't formed organically by like minded friends, they're put together by agencies, and the whole scene is just toxic as fuck between the body image shit, psyco obsessed fans, all the toxic elements of pagent, dance, and pop music culture all rolled into one, i get that. However, its always the most CUTTING EDGE audio production, the songs are like 3 mintues long, and just so damn well written musically....every song is just STACKED with interesting harmonies (cuz these groups have like 5-9 girls in them who are all carefully selected for their ranges and skill), vocal melodies, and backing tracks that draw influences from all eras of pop music, edm, detroit and german techno, rap/hip hop, rock, and IVE even released a song with some country western elements in it. I find the production, the melodies, the songwritting, etc so much more interesting and inspiring that anything else around right now. Plus the lyrics aren't in english, so knowing how mindless they probably are doesn't take away anything to my ears. i've been listening to non-english music since i was like 5 because of me being raised by my grandparents who had german and austrian folk music cassettes(i.e yoddeling and beer drinking songs), mixed in with shit like Abba, Sinatra, The Fiddler on the roof soundtrack, etc. they were kinda ecclectic in their music taste for old fuckers I guess thats where i get my weird, wide taste from i guess.

tl:dr: K pop.


as far as metal goes though, the other thing that is making it suck is the fans. Alot of guys who never really grow up, or never tried to write a fucking song get way too gatekeepery, negative, judgey, etc that makes alot of bands think twice about what they write. They have to stay in a certain "box" to keep what fans they do have. Classic thrash is probably the best example of that. Then you have bands like metallica and in flames who change up big time, and fans FREAK THE FUCK OUT about it and like maybe 30% of fans embrace the change, and the rest just sit on the internet and talk shit. i've been guilty of it myself when i was younger and didn't "get it". Metal purists are miserable losers, and i'm done being associated with that negative energy.

 

[JonPearson1994]

This is one of those bands that have great playing, but the guitar tone is so mid quacky it grates on my ears and I cant listen to it because of that.

Yeah I can't even give this band a chance because the production is so lame

every time i try to listen to music like this my brain just starts saying "oh boy, another metal band with ultra mid boosted drop z guitar tone and steven slate drum samples amazing, maybe you should go play baldurs gate or elden ring instead"

It's just so god damned generic I can't even stand more than 30 seconds of it

..... I mean I guess y'all. I can understand production that is so bad that it affects the actual audibility of music, but like, I just don't get the feather-ruffling over this.

Obviously y'all got your preferences and priorities but I'll be damned if a cringe production is putting me off of good tunes.

 

[DanTravis62]

..... I mean I guess y'all. I can understand production that is so bad that it affects the actual audibility of music, but like, I just don't get the feather-ruffling over this.

Obviously y'all got your preferences and priorities but I'll be damned if a cringe production is putting me off of good tunes.

I'm not trying to be offensive at all

It's not even that the band is bad or something

It's just this type of production is such burnt toast at this point that I can't even give the band a chance

This "satellite radio metal" production style was overdone in the late 2000s after everyone discovered andy sneap and how to emulate fredrik nordstroms micing techniques - at this point, two decades later, it's not just "overdone" its completely exhausting to listen to

To the point where I just completely tune out any "metal" that sounds like this

 

[Holy-diver]

I'm not trying to be offensive at all

It's not even that the band is bad or something

It's just this type of production is such burnt toast at this point that I can't even give the band a chance

This "satellite radio metal" production style was overdone in the late 2000s after everyone discovered andy sneap and how to emulate fredrik nordstroms micing techniques - at this point, two decades later, it's not just "overdone" its completely exhausting to listen to

To the point where I just completely tune out any "metal" that sounds like this

I mean at least it seems like Alluvial tried to make it sound as good as they could. Not liking the quacky guitar tone and polished production is fair but I’d rather hear these dudes try to make it sound as good as possible vs a lot of the mush in the new death metal thread.

 

[DanTravis62]

I mean at least it seems like Alluvial tried to make it sound as good as they could. Not liking the quacky guitar tone and polished production is fair but I’d rather hear these dudes try to make it sound as good as possible vs a lot of the mush in the new death metal thread.

It's definitely annoying when death metal bands try to sound like shit on purpose (as if "Breeding the Spawn" or "The Red in the Sky is Ours" sounds like shit on purpose)

That's obviously stupid and boring that they aren't trying to do their own thing - which sucks

But that's like comparing a local tragedy to a holocaust - the sheer number of bands who do the "quacky drop A modern metal guitar sound and steven slate drum sample replacement" production sound is like the number of atoms in the universe

That's totally cool if you haven't hit critical mass yet, but you will, eventually, get sick of it. It's just a matter of time, because there are literally endless bands that sound exactly like this.

 

[RaceU4her]

i just heard this and love it

 

[Holy-diver]

It's definitely annoying when death metal bands try to sound like shit on purpose (as if "Breeding the Spawn" or "The Red in the Sky is Ours" sounds like shit on purpose)

That's obviously stupid and boring that they aren't trying to do their own thing - which sucks

But that's like comparing a local tragedy to a holocaust - the sheer number of bands who do the "quacky drop A modern metal guitar sound and steven slate drum sample replacement" production sound is like the number of atoms in the universe

That's totally cool if you haven't hit critical mass yet, but you will, eventually, get sick of it. It's just a matter of time, because there are literally endless bands that sound exactly like this.

Totally agree with you there and that’s what I hate when bands have such bad production like it’s 1991 again. I recorded our buddies band with 3 sm57s around 2009 and their demo legitimately sounded on par with some of this stuff people seem to be doing on purpose.

I also actually am tired of that production too but at least it feels like more of an effort to actually sound good. Maybe it’s the same thing end of day just with a different target sound and it’s all lame and gay derivative nonsense. We might just be too saturated in general lol

 

[romanianreaper]

The majority of music, new or classic bands, is just too polished and overdone. I think there is a reason old Sabbath, Zeppelin, etc sounds so amazing. They had a limited amount of time to work on stuff and had to stay focused, live in the moment, etc.

Bands take forever to record and then come out with an 18 song album with a lot of filler. On top of that there are meet and greets, festivals with 200 bands on the bill, etc. A lot of us older metalheads remember laying on the floor listening to vinyl, reading the liner notes and listening to an album over and over. Now the industry is flooded with bands and you have to sift thru it all.

I'm hoping something changes a bit and shakes up the industry. We need some great metal to come up to the surface.

 

[JimAnsell2]

It's definitely annoying when death metal bands try to sound like shit on purpose (as if "Breeding the Spawn" or "The Red in the Sky is Ours" sounds like shit on purpose)

dude, i LOOOOOVE the production on The Red in the sky is ours, and With Fear I Kiss The Burning Darkness. its dry, raw, gritty, but the mix is still excellent. Thomas literally sounds like hes going to jump off the track and strangle you. When i first heard their come back album At War With Reality, that was the ONLY problem i had with it...Thomas sounds great, but he's not as "in your face" sounding as i wanted him to be. His performance sounds good, its just in the production i think. I love how those first two records have some super unorthodox riffs and harmonizing thanks to Alf Svensen. His other band Oxiplegatz is great too. Sidereal Journey is one of my favorite albums of all time. Super home made sounding, and it goes from ATG style riffs and aggression to this werid, erie, female vocaled, disney soundtrack sounding stuff and back. Its a concept album about ruining the planet and trying to find another one to inhabit. The other albums are a little more scatter brained, but all very interesting if you like that classic atg sound and want to hear it with some crazy experimentation.

 

[Shask]

..... I mean I guess y'all. I can understand production that is so bad that it affects the actual audibility of music, but like, I just don't get the feather-ruffling over this.

Obviously y'all got your preferences and priorities but I'll be damned if a cringe production is putting me off of good tunes.

To me, the guitar tone, and overall studio production vibe has a lot to do if I can get into a band or not. I just can't get into the quacky guitar, clicky programmed drums, screamo guy over the top of it style. It just has no groove. No vibe. I have never liked anything that sounded like this over the last 15 years or so. I will take a Max Cavalera album of him chugging on the top string every day. Way more groove, and way bigger sounding production.

 

[JimAnsell2]

To me, the guitar tone, and overall studio production vibe has a lot to do if I can get into a band or not. I just can't get into the quacky guitar, clicky programmed drums, screamo guy over the top of it style. It just has no groove. No vibe. I have never liked anything that sounded like this over the last 15 years or so. I will take a Max Cavalera album of him chugging on the top string every day. Way more groove, and way bigger sounding production.

i hear you on that for sure, and Max is NOT a likable guy inside the scene thanks to his wife and him kinda fucking up sepultura, and soulfly was terrible apart from a few songs on the first record. i'd rather hear that than this bad, super gridded, super redundant, forgettable metal core that has totally over stayed its welcome. that shit hit the scene almost 25 years ago now, and the only progression its made is in the "cheating" production. Every few months we find out that some front man in one of these groups is dm'ing under aged girls, or saying something racist (Kublai Khan), or some dumb abusive shit (tim from as i lay dying hiring a hit man to try to kill his wife amongst other things)

 

[Shask]

i hear you on that for sure, and Max is NOT a likable guy inside the scene thanks to his wife and him kinda fucking up sepultura, and soulfly was terrible apart from a few songs on the first record, but i'd rather hear that than this bad, super gridded, super redundant, forgettable metal core that has totally over stayed its welcome. that shit hit the scene almost 25 years ago now, and the only progression its made is in the "cheating" production.

He was just an example that came to mind, lol. Sepultura, Nailbomb, Soulfy, Killer be Killed, Cavalera Conspiracy..... all have good stuff on them. It is simple as hell guitar-wise, but just has a good groove and big sounding production that doesn't sound synthetic.