Metal music today: what's wrong with it?

[shredhead7]

I'm late to the party as usual. I'm 37, so 80's hair/power metal is what I relate to the most. I grew up on Racer X, Queensryche, Fates Warning, Crimson Glory, et al. Getting into death metal (including all bands that growl/cookie monster) wasn't something that happened over night. I had a friend that was in a DM band in 92 and he turned me onto Death and Atheist, which then got me into Cynic. That was the extent of it though.

In 2000 I got three CD's that changed all of that. I will call these gateway's, though they are all from 95-98 or so. The first is routinely listed as one of the best, if not most influential death metal CD to come out in the last 15 years. They took Maiden riffs and put an industrial back beat similar to Nine Inch Nails. There are almost no solos, but the result became melodic death metal. This is the band that everyone else wanted to be. Every song is 3 or so minutes long, and each has the coolest riffs around. Simple. To the point.

The second is Arch Enemy's third release. These guys shred, but with taste. The Michael Schenker influence is worn proudly with these guys, as is their love of things 80's when it wasn't popular to do so. Their downside is that each cd usually only contains 3 great songs and the rest are sort of meh. Having said that, the solos are epic and melodic, and both brothers (guitar players) have some of the best vibrato around.

My last gateway is a little known band called Darkane. These guys write progressive styled death metal. One part Meshuggah, one part Debussy. There are three cool things about this band that set them apart for me. The first is the drummer is amazing. Not in the all of the place all of the time, he has a little of that, but he just writes what fits the songs and knows when to grove and when to be creative. Second, they did the clean chorus first in DM. You could say that Fear Factory did or Cynic, but both of those are vocodor parts. Lastly, the riffs aren't 4 beat riffs. Usually a band has one riff per measure, or they make the measure fit the riff. Darkane usually ties the 4th quarter or eighth note into the next beats first quarter. This stretches the melody and allows the drummer to syncopate a lot more, while also bringing up the subtle classic influence.

 

[axemeaquestion]

a

Pseudo-Christian metal bands. Why bother?

I'll tell you why. The typical God or Jesus themed Xian metal genre has pretty much run its course. God created the heavens and the earth and Jesus died on the cross. We get it. But every once in a while, you stumble (drunkenly or not) across a tune based on the magnificence of the Holy Spirit.

And that's totally different.

 

[rottingcorpse]

my music line runs RUSH,MAIDEN,METALLICA,SLAYER,MORBID ANGEL,etc. i have ridden the heavy to heavier wave as it rose, not as it crested. (just saying, not trying to sound awesome or cool)

but i pretty much listened to heavy stuff that was hard to play when it first arrived on the scene. each time the rhythms were a little harder to play and become proficient at. time signatures and speeds became more complicated. for a while it was "how fast can i blow through these songs accurately?". (try blowing though the 29 minute "reign in blood" opus in sub 18 minutes time)

so to be honest, all i really hear is the rhythms. so for me, i hear lots of newer metal that has great new rhythms for me to score on. threat signal's cd "vigilance" has some cool stuff on it. i always hear something i like on each new l.o.g. cd. gary holt from exodus always makes me smile. bands like psyopus really push the boundries of what i can deal with. hell, i have friends from texas that put out stuff all the time i like to hear. if it thrashes, i am happy. you never know when your gonna hear a little tidbit that might make you say "that's kinda cool, maybe i'll figure that riff out."

the "liquid metal" channel on sirius radio gives me a pretty good idea of whats new out there. i hear it all because jose manga does a great job programming the channel. the new wave of american metal isn't that bad. "beyond the pit" plays all the brutal stuff, new and old (though i am sick of hearing old mayhem demos). hell, even rotting corpse gets spun on there every once in a while....so i guess i might be biased.

 

[sinfish]

And you admittedly don't understand the lyrics of the music you listen to? Sounds like I'm missing out big time

There's a lot of people like this, myself included. I almost never hear the words; when I listen to music the vocals come across as a melodic instrument rather than a spoken (sung) verse. There's very few songs I know the words to unless the chorus really stands out.

On the plus side, it means I'm unaffected by shitty lyrics. On the negative side, shitty vocals are really distracting.

I really wish someone would start releasing songs on technology that'd let me mute the vocal tracks.

Completely the same way here. Can't remember a word to save my life.

 

[guitarslinger]

my random thoughts:
Boris is awesome, but I don't consider it "metal". It's more like "sludgey post-rock with vocals."

Even though the "sludgy post-rock with vocals" is the minority of their work, it's the majority of the stuff most people have been exposed to as it is the most easily digestible by the mainstream.

Dive into them deeper and you'll find a lot of doom metal, sludge, drone, stoner, psychedelic, experimental, noise and ambient stuff. Unless you have a taste for real drone metal and/or ambient noise (or a really open mind) you probably won't like much outside of the Heavy Rocks and Pink albums.

good info. I have the Pink album.

I'm probably not open-minded enough for their dronier stuff.

 

[some dude]

I'm probably not open-minded enough for their dronier stuff.

It helps if your baked.

It's not something I can specifically sit and listen to. I'll put them (or Earth, Sunn O))), etc) on as background music when I'm doing other things.

 

[headlessdeadguy]

This thread is a fucking disgrace.

 

[lolzgreg]

There is nothing wrong with metal today. Still Pantera is my fave metal band of all time, but I still enjoy a lot of the newer bands that are out today. Textures is a good example of new metal I love!

Textures

Oh yes.

I know it's been mentioned before, but it's a lot easier for bands to get recognized in some way shape or form, so there are MORE bands out there.

Here's a list of "awesome," metal albums, that you guys should check out:

Textures- "Silhouettes"
Opeth- "Ghost Reveries"
Gojira- "The Way of all Flesh"
Soilwork- "The Panic Broadcast"
Katatonia- "Night is the New Day"
Nevermore- "This Godless Endeavor"
Extol- "Synergy"
Cult of Luna- "Somewhere Along the Highway"

I could go on for a while, but those are some of my favorite albums.

 

[Anonymous]

is this the day Rig-talk has become the gear page?

will we start seeing topics like...

"My half stack is too heavy, what is the best "grab and Go" handwired combo amp"

 

[headlessdeadguy]

is this the day Rig-talk has become the gear page?

will we start seeing topics like...

"My half stack is too heavy, what is the best "grab and Go" handwired combo amp"

 

[guitarslinger]

is this the day Rig-talk has become the gear page?

will we start seeing topics like...

"My half stack is too heavy, what is the best "grab and Go" handwired combo amp"

No way, man. I still use a VHT 2150 and two Emperor 4x12's to play Morrissey and The Cure.

 

[Ventura]

Pseudo-Christian metal bands. Why bother?

Aw F*CK STEVE!!!! Why'd YA HAVE TO START ME UP AGAIN!!!


V.

 

[Shiny_Surface]

is this the day Rig-talk has become the gear page?

will we start seeing topics like...

"My half stack is too heavy, what is the best "grab and Go" handwired combo amp"

It's probably not that far away, some of the 80's guy are in their 50's now.

 

[Inquisitor]

Well, one thing's for sure - this thread has been the most popular and active one in a long, long time on the main RT forum. So it's obvious there are a lot of people who feel strong either one way or the other...

Great debate, awesome thread!

G'Night...
V.

And thats even without my inflammatory comments fueling the fire. Guess hating everyone is just the way
But indeed interesting points from everyone. And everyones keeping a level head too, so kudos for that as well.

 

[metalsoup]

Lots of interesting and diverse viewpoints.

This 2002 song here is the coolest thing I've seen "recently." I sort of imagine it as what we could have if the likes of Bruce Dickinson and Alexi Laiho teamed up to form a brilliant metal band. It's got melody, riffs, solos...pretty much everything that gets me off musically. It seems to combine both the old (80s) and the new (90s+) perfectly.

 

[leib10]

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

+1 on LOG; they get tedious after about 10 minutes. Every song has the same gallops and interludes and vocals. They have their own sound, it's just not that good after a while. As for the rest of metal, they all sound almost exactly alike. There's not really much songwriting going on anymore; it's like a computer wrote everything. Drop Z tuning, double kick drums, chuggah chuggah riffs, and the same old vocals. The thing that gets me is that you can put two bands, and sometimes even two songs, next to each other and not tell that they've changed. Very, very few bands stand out from the crowd, ones that when you hear them, you immediately know who they are and what they're about. A lot of people hate them, but Avenged Sevenfold is one of those bands. Love their sound or hate it, they're pretty unmistakeable, and that alone sets them above the ones that I've previously mentioned. I'm sure I'll catch unbelievable amounts of crap for that statement, but I stand by it.

 

[Spaceboy]

I listen to mostly "drop z, double bass, chugga chugga, cookie monster" music, and I can tell every single band apart.

 

[leib10]

That's cool. It's just not my cup of tea. I like at least (what I can perceive to be) a shred of originality in the music I listen to. Not dissing your taste or the bands you like, I'm just saying that it's not my thing.

 

[Spaceboy]

I think any genre of music will all basically sound the same if it's not really what you're into.

IMO, all country sounds the same, but I'm sure someone who's into country knows what to listen for to appreciate it.

 

[leib10]

Exactly. And that is what's "wrong" with metal: it depends on who's judging it. For lots of people, it just clicks; for some it doesn't. That's the beauty of music. One man's trash is another's treasure.