Metal Reviews

There's a very similar thread from about a year back, but I didn't want to bump it.

I particularly hate that trend sweeping British indie/pop music of writing lyrics about completely mundane things, and having having really simple melodies. We can thank the Arctic fucking Monkeys for that one.

Screamy vocals. Unless done really well, they're just not as powerful as death grunts n' growls.

Really? I prefer them, as long as their not done in a emo sort of way. With death grunts, the problem isn't that I can't understand what they're saying, it's just that I'd like it to sound like they're saying something.

A lot of drum triggering I hear really bothers me. Cradle of Filth's Cruelty and the Beast is a prime example of what I'm talking about. That bass drum is almost indistinguishable from the snare. Trigger-free drumming sounds so much more organic.

On that note, super-spick-n-span production bugs me too. It's boring and lifeless if it sounds too clean.

When a band talks about their new record and says "It's the best album we've ever done" and then, 2 years down the road: "Well, we didn't really liked album - X"

Maybe I've listened to too much BM, but I find super-polished production really jarring, especially on headphones . It feels like the music's pushing me up against the wall and yelling at me.

Oh, definately. Screams convey the impression that the vocalist is miserable. Growls convey the impression he wants to snap your spine and play football with your head. I find that growls can be deciphered with experience as well, so maybe it's just something some people get more than others.

Another thing that annoys me about music is intro tracks. Otherwise awesome albums are rendered annoying due to some minute's worth of keyboard wankery that should never have been made. Whatever happened to starting albums with something catchy, like a fuck-off great riff?

It's something like that, yes. Such as when an album's soft parts are as loud as the loud parts? That bothers the shit outta me.

Yeah I agree 100%. KEYBOARD WANKERY!
It seems like every other album these days have an utterly pointless intro track. I didn't mind them a few years ago but unless they really have a good, atmospheric track to use just skip it. In fact, even then just skip it. Just. Skip. It.

Once again I must disagree with you . I think intro tracks help to lead you into the album, instead of blasting you full-on.

Can't you just take a few deep breaths or something? In most cases the intros have absolutely balls-all to do with the next track, making your point pointless.

definitely agree on both of those. especially triggers, whats the point of making your drums sound cleaner if it makes it sound like a fucking drum machine


yeah i agree, some intros kick major ass (see: Devin Townsend/Strapping Young Lad's), but most of them just seem pointlessly tacked on.

I jump usually jump a mile if something starts really suddenly. I think you might have misunderstood my point. I was trying to say that intros, when done properly put you in the right frame of mind for the rest of the album.

Yes, and again: most bands are useless at it. If it's a part of the first proper song, why not make it one track? A decent band doesn't need a bit of keyboard wankery to pull you in. Take Emperor - ITNS had battle noise as part of the first track, ATTWAD had that invocation which leads straight into the first proper track and is practically a song in itself, IE goes straight in, as does P.

- i can't stand most intros or interludes, some exceptions being Kamelot's "New Allegiance" and Nile's "Die Rache Krieg Lied Der Assyriche".

- i hate it when songs have huge intros or endings (Machine Head are particularly guilty on this). mind you on the first point i was talking about intros as separate tracks, this is intros as part of a song.

- that TA TA TA TA TA TA TA TA TA blasting drumming ruins songs for me, it destroys any "fluidity" that a riff has. seriously, cut that shit out, it's not extreme, it's just stupid.

Nothing. Pretty much everything in music sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Making a list of stuff that instantly ruins the music for you with no exception, well that's rather narrow-minded thinking IMO.

Sorry if I'm not expressing myself in the best way...damn newspaper delivery job @ night, got my sleep all messed up

I hate rock n' roll music and country music, it's so repetitive it makes me shoot my balls.

I hate some of the bands hiding their identity. Especially Deathspell Omega. The latest album has one of the best drumworks in the history of metal and no one has any idea who plays it. I don't know a French drummer who is as good as that so I can't even make a guess.


God! WHO THE FUCK IS IT?

I somewhat agree with you on that...in some cases it totally ruins the song (entire CD of Krisiun--Ageless Venemous...good example of shitty bass triggers, too), but in others it makes the song more intense, like in Progenies of the Great Apocalypse where the drums come out of the keyboard part.

I'm tired of classic rock covers. Seriously, how many times do the same AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple songs need to be covered anyway? And often, the bands covering them add almost NOTHING new to these songs. How about covering a song most of us have never heard before? Or at least covering one that's rarely covered by metal bands?

Also, may be it's the fact that I myself am a Christian, but I think religious hypocrisy is a ridiculously tired topic in heavy music. Seriously, how many songs can you listen to that badmouth religion before you finally grow tired of it? And a lot of these songs are not only completely ignorant about the topic they're protesting, but also seem to neglect the fact that ATHEISTS HURT CHILDREN AND BRAINWASH PEOPLE JUST AS MUCH AS CHRISTIANS. It seems like a lot of bands bash religion just because it's the "cool thing to do" rather than because they're seriously disgusted with it.