Metal music today: what's wrong with it?

[axemeaquestion]

I thot the Mastodon song was pretty good. The Sword tune was good, too, very reminiscent of old Sabbath. The Melvins tune was also decent, but it's unlikely I'd listen to it multiple times. The Pelican song was a bit meh to start off with but they showed some melodic chops in the middle section. I love guitar instrumentals (can anyone say Holdsworth?).

Thanks for the tunes, they were all new to me. That being said, are they considered to be heavy metal? It wasn't really clickety-click.

 

[DEWD]

Lamb of God and The Sword are GREAT imo. Riffs for days....

 

[guitarmike]

There are the European metal bands carrying the flag. Dragonland and Firewind are 2 that come to mind quickly. The whole music scene is so splintered right now I don't see how any traditional metal band will ever get radio play, especially in the US. The music industry is about the quick buck, not quality. Cookie Monster bands can sell right now so the market gets flooded with them. 90% of today's music is throw away, no one will remember it in 20 years.

 

[jlbaxe]

+1 on new metal for me, I cant stand the cookie monster stuff. The last metal band that really did it for me was Pantera. Guess I am showing my age.

I resemble that remark

+2......

3
Sword(from the 80's) "Stoned again" , Black Sabbath, Dio, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Deep Purple, Zepplin all a few of what I call real METAL. Im 40 for the next week or so and cant stand any of the new CRAP.

 

[Motorpud]

Lamb of God and The Sword are GREAT imo. Riffs for days....

I'm a fan of Lamb of God but their vocalist gets pretty tiresome to listen to, after a while I just block him out and only pay attention to the guitars I'm not a big fan of The Sword but I saw them open for someone (I don't remember who) but they were great live

 

[6string40]

I thot the Mastodon song was pretty good.

Thanks for the tunes, they were all new to me. That being said, are they considered to be heavy metal? It wasn't really clickety-click.

Some more Mastodon...they certainly get heavy at times, but it's not like death metal or hardcore

 

[jlbaxe]

Sword and The Sword are two different bands just to clarify

 

[DEWD]

Lamb of God and The Sword are GREAT imo. Riffs for days....

I'm a fan of Lamb of God but their vocalist gets pretty tiresome to listen to, after a while I just block him out and only pay attention to the guitars I'm not a big fan of The Sword but I saw them open for someone (I don't remember who) but they were great live

Yeah he should really switch it up sometimes. The screaming loses it's impact when it's 100% all the time. The guitars though....

 

[axemeaquestion]

Sword and The Sword are two different bands just to clarify

"Who do you like?"

"Yes, I like The Who."

 

[some dude]

I thot the Mastodon song was pretty good. The Sword tune was good, too, very reminiscent of old Sabbath. The Melvins tune was also decent, but it's unlikely I'd listen to it multiple times. The Pelican song was a bit meh to start off with but they showed some melodic chops in the middle section. I love guitar instrumentals (can anyone say Holdsworth?).

Thanks for the tunes, they were all new to me. That being said, are they considered to be heavy metal? It wasn't really clickety-click.

All except The Sword are sludge metal... although they're not really limited to that genre.

The Sword are in the realm of Stoner Rock/Doom Metal.

Sludge and doom metal started back in the 80s and were basically a bunch of bands doing their own thing while trying to ignore the whole pop/glam/hair metal thing that was popular at the time... so a lot of Sabbath and Pentagram inspired music. Doom metal is probably the dumbest/worst name for a sub-genre as it turns a lot of people off without even checking anything out, but if you want to hear some modern metal that isn't all screaming and machine gun kick drum stoner and doom are good genres to check out.

 

[Anonymous]

was weaned on the Randy Rhoads Ozzy, which I know isn't considered heavy by today's standards, but certainly was then.

I gots ta tell ya, the stuff I heard was pretty much shit. Clickety-click kick drums, a preponderence of muted chug notes (whatever the lowest string on the guitar happened to be tuned to), and the vocals....

Gracious, there wasn't a melody to be found in the vocals. Just a bunch of screamers droning into their mikes. Such originality.

Who here likes this stuff and can you name a couple of metal bands that are actually good?

The problem is you are older and were raised on stuff from years ago. The Ozzy stuff was considered extreme to the generation older than us! I am not in love with alot of the newer metal but I also understand it's not being created for people my age! That said you may want to check out Machine Head, Nevermore, Firewind, Jorn , something with modern influences but a bit more "traditional" in playing and structure.

 

[metalone]

I know some people don't like these guys but they have some great songs I'm old but I like this stuff, fun to play too
If you get to the end of Becoming the Dragon there is a wah pedal bass solo thing that is cool

 

[SFW]

I give you Opeth. Some cookie monster, but the guy can also sing his ass off! Well writtin material, and some solos that you can hum.

 

[thegame]

Most of the old stuff that turned out to be classic was written by guys who were NOT influenced by metal, because in many cases it didn't exist yet. Too many metal bands today are influenced by nothing outside their genre. On the technical side, its harder to sound distinctive with today's downloadable digital recording methods.

At the rate its going, I don't think there will ever be another Dio, Halford, Dickinson in metal music ever again. Those guys didn't grow up listening to metal.

We've reached the point of diminishing returns as far as how "brutal" metal can get. Black metal is filled with as many poseurs as glam metal was in the 80s. Same thing, image over music. Grindcore, WTF ? That shit is basically taking whatever small semblance of melody there is left in death metal and removing it completely. Its basically organized noise.

Sure, there's been some cool stuff to come out in recent years, but you have to wonder why the vast majority of metal classics were released in the 70s/80s, when there were much fewer bands out there.

 

[6string40]

was weaned on the Randy Rhoads Ozzy, which I know isn't considered heavy by today's standards, but certainly was then.

I gots ta tell ya, the stuff I heard was pretty much shit. Clickety-click kick drums, a preponderence of muted chug notes (whatever the lowest string on the guitar happened to be tuned to), and the vocals....

Gracious, there wasn't a melody to be found in the vocals. Just a bunch of screamers droning into their mikes. Such originality.

Who here likes this stuff and can you name a couple of metal bands that are actually good?

The problem is you are older and were raised on stuff from years ago. The Ozzy stuff was considered extreme to the generation older than us! I am not in love with alot of the newer metal but I also understand it's not being created for people my age! That said you may want to check out Machine Head, Nevermore, Firewind, Jorn , something with modern influences but a bit more "traditional" in playing and structure.

How could I forget Machine Head! Their best stuff was probably Burn My Eyes and The Blackening.

 

[metalone]

I give you Opeth. Some cookie monster, but the guy can also sing his ass off! Well writtin material, and some solos that you can hum.

Cool I like these guys too

 

[axemeaquestion]

was weaned on the Randy Rhoads Ozzy, which I know isn't considered heavy by today's standards, but certainly was then.

I gots ta tell ya, the stuff I heard was pretty much shit. Clickety-click kick drums, a preponderence of muted chug notes (whatever the lowest string on the guitar happened to be tuned to), and the vocals....

Gracious, there wasn't a melody to be found in the vocals. Just a bunch of screamers droning into their mikes. Such originality.

Who here likes this stuff and can you name a couple of metal bands that are actually good?

The problem is you are older and were raised on stuff from years ago. The Ozzy stuff was considered extreme to the generation older than us! I am not in love with alot of the newer metal but I also understand it's not being created for people my age! That said you may want to check out Machine Head, Nevermore, Firewind, Jorn , something with modern influences but a bit more "traditional" in playing and structure.

Perhaps. I guess once I got into Holdsworth, all the metal stuff seemed pretty low quality in terms of musicianship. Maybe not musicianship, but songwriting.

 

[noseminer]

Theres tons of great metal being made today, probably more than ever. But you are probably not going to find it on the TV metal station.

 

[axemeaquestion]

I give you Opeth. Some cookie monster, but the guy can also sing his ass off! Well writtin material, and some solos that you can hum.

Pretty decent. God, but these modern guys love their clicky kicks. I almost thot I was listenng to YYZ at the beginning.

The cookie monster vox (on all the tunes) really are a joke though. Who actually thinks it's good singing?

 

[axemeaquestion]

Theres tons of great metal being made today, probably more than ever. But you are probably not going to find it on the TV metal station.

The tv metal station has all the big bands:

Killer of Bodon
Sons of Anarchy
Deviant Slavepigs
Whore of Anastasia

and all the cool tunes:

Drudging the Sludge
Hymn of Death
Killing Her Softly With My Machete

No, all the bases were covered in that two hour period that I am basing my conclusions on.