Where can metal go from here?

  • Thread starter Thread starter thiswaythatway
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Old school. Today it seems to be the new underground movement.
 
Maybe it can go to having catchy hooks, pleasant vocals, and lyrics that either are fun or at least relatable to the average person, instead of mindless riffs or riffs that are complicated for the sake of being complicated, vocals that either are whiny or sound like the cookie monster, and lyrics that are so terribly and obviously antisocial that they alienate the mainstream.
 
well, AC/DC just headlined Coachella. Probably has more to do with creating hits and the population actually liking the songs, old or new. Start creating music that has a wide appeal, although it has to be the younger set.
 
SFW":21wxwxl4 said:
I think if we could get out of dropped z tuning and return to some form of melody it would get better.
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This.
 
^ it's the riffs, but less sometimes is more. Some of these newer metal bands I hear can play some really sick stuff, but the tempos are so odd they lose any groove and they're so complicated they aren't memorable. And having a good vocalist means you can keep the song moving well while the riffing reasonably low key until the right moments to really make your impact.
 
cardinal":2rf4ce4g said:
^ it's the riffs, but less sometimes is more. Some of these newer metal bands I hear can play some really sick stuff, but the tempos are so odd they lose any groove and they're so complicated they aren't memorable. And having a good vocalist means you can keep the song moving well while the riffing reasonably low key until the right moments to really make your impact.
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Agreed.
 
And if you have a kick ass drummer, even mindless stupid riffs can sound awesome over the top of it. Unfortunately a lot of bands have drummers that are an afterthought.
 
A friend and I were discussing this the other day. I think it comes down to production, it used to be every drummer used the DM5 and the guitars were miked amps. Now, everyone is using sims or a snax and programming the drumming (even if the drummer can play it, it's fixed and replaced with samples). What you get is every recording sounds the exact same, there is nothing sonically different. That combined with some sort of Djent and Cynic riffs, gets you to todays metal scene. I mean, I love the harmonic minor scale over Maj/Min 7ths as much as anyone, but Holdsworth really took that idea as far as it could go.
 
cardinal":1761g6f8 said:
Maybe it can go to having catchy hooks, pleasant vocals, and lyrics that either are fun or at least relatable to the average person, instead of mindless riffs or riffs that are complicated for the sake of being complicated, vocals that either are whiny or sound like the cookie monster, and lyrics that are so terribly and obviously antisocial that they alienate the mainstream.
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I think it's mostly the vocals that are killing metal. I've found people are pretty accepting of the actual music but loose interest the second the vocals kick in.

If we ignore the music that's extreme for the sake of being extreme... there's a lot of stuff that could be more appealing if it weren't for the terrible vocals.

The problem is that as a society we hate success and any band that tries to make music that tries to appeal to a large audience is ostracized. Hell, any band that accidentally makes a song that a bunch of normal people like is ostracized... kind of hard to make a go of it in that kind of environment.
 




There are also bands like Red Fang out there doing what they do, not to mention the BTBAM/DEP types.
 
It's not just metal. I think guitar centric music in general has been played out. For tweens, teens and 20-somethings, guitar is your parents, grandparents, even great-grand parents instrument and music.

I got Ableton Live and a Push to learn...but still screwing with guitar gear too. Looking for bass and drums around here is sobering, all country players or they want to fall into an instant pro gigging situation... so I'm just playing what I'm into now, hitting open mic nights on occasion, never know...

That said, I've seen a number of good guitar based bands around here, doing mostly originals, all 20-something members, none are doing metal which is fine with me.

Guitar based music will be a niche, getting smaller over time...of course when the millenials of today into trance, EDM, etc have kids maybe their kids will annoy them with the sounds of electric guitars? lol
 
danyeo":2r08tlwb said:
Yes, I meant that as well. All the recordings are so perfect now. I was in my car the other day listening to some Journey. Yes Journey...don't laugh. But it was Journey from the late 70's before they went all arena rock, think Infinity album. But the old school production was actually a bit refreshing.
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This has been me for the past two years. There is something about the 70s production that is missing over the past two decades. I love the way 70s rock production sounds. Not a lot of effects added and the mixes sounded so clean with great instrument separation. I can't believe I am becoming one of those types of guys that has reverted back to older material although I still really like new stuff too.
 
I think the problem with the genre is that it's a breeding ground of elitist douche nozzlery. The increasing web of sub genres is a result of incessant pigeon-holing where we don't just see people divided from the mainstream by 'alternative' music anymore, but by what wanky sub-genre of metal you listen to and how much more metal than you someone else is.
 
A friend of mine use to say "well fuck, it's only good when you have to read the lyrics from an A4 print out to understand them!" about extreme metal etc...lol. I still can't say if he was joking or not.

Well I guess it is good that all of these sub genres exist and people can listen to different stuff, always heavy though.

For example I recently saw those kids "babymetal" band doing ...their jap-pop melodies with a full on thrashy-classic-shred-death you name it backing band ...like this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WlLDNFIHO4

and then you got guys like sergey golovin that kind of makes you say go back home, you are too little! I mean more or less you know the bands, you know the players and you know some of the good players in the forums etc, soundcloud and shit like that. He is something else, more kind of like evolved. The way of knitting riffs, ideas, sense of rythm. His fucking drill for a right hand, the weird melodies. It's not that nobody else never did something like this before but he does them so effortlessly and paints something like a sci-fi alien space metal sunset.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vDtRUONOKw


In the end, it's about the riff. Ideas are always out there and that includes metal.
 
BrentSSL":2rcwgbsj said:
Metal isn't going anywhere right now because the no one has any idea how to be the slightest bit different then what they hear. Not to mention that the last "Metal Wave" we had that people had been drawn or attracted too decided to try ro make the jump to radio play and quickly faded out. I'm specifically talking about Dragonforce (novelty,band), Trivium, Bullet for my Valentine, Atreyu, and All that Remains. Those bands at the height of thier popularity with some older bands like Lamb of God and Killswitch and Machine Head taking them on tour could have moved the genre into another level for new listeners. But noooo they went and tried to become radio bands and people call Hatebreed a girls metal band uugh. Not to mention the Black keys jam band bluesy crap movement so now we have hipsters everywhere and studio crap all over the radio thats a regurgitation of early 2000s jam bands thats a regurgitation of all the 60s and 70s rock we already hear all the time. Now instead of metal stacks guitar center is full of crappy combo amps for a hipster friendly store blah.
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Except All that Remains actually did it. The band is more popular than they have ever been. Making the most money they ever have at a time when almost ALL of thier peers have thrown in the towel. Thier songs are played at baseball games etc...
 
Jason_86_951":3djaedsq said:
Digging these guys (and gal) lately.



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I kind of dig that second track PLUS I gotta support my brethren = Ukrainians!
 
pro tools/home recording on puters with endless takes hasn't helped things much.

i think the quintessential statement has been made in 2 seperate decades and no one can better or beat

The first wave
1.black sabbath-first 5 lps
zep,deep purple up to the last 2 with coverdale
priest,uriah heap,alice cooper,nugent,thin lizzy,whitesnake,
etc etc
The second wave
2.metallica,slayer,death,mercyful fate,nasty savage,venom,motorhead,toxik,testament,megadeth etc etc etc

everything else is just a variation on these including AIC,soundgarden FNM,Pantera etc
 
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