Metal Reviews

Me and my mates hav been arguing for some time on who is more of a musical genius. I believe Devin Townsend when all my skl boy friends feel it is Mikael Akefeldt.

Pffft! Devin Townsend by a mile. Not even close.

They're not really comparable because Devin's music is more extroverted and spontaneous while Opeth are more introverted and thought-out, so I'll be in a totally different mood when I want to listen to one over the other. I'd still go for Devin though just because the only Opeth album I can get all the way through is Still Life, and he has a way sexier voice.

+1, but i wouldnt call any of them a genius anyway, but i do enjoy Devins work alot more, and he is definitely more creative.
This kind of argument is typical fanboy talk, they somehow feel that they have to justify their preference for a band/person by elevating them/him to an almost godly status, but unlike saying something like "Mikael/Devin = God" wich obvously cant be true (Jaden has already proven the inexistance of god) they actually believe it, and try to claim it as a fact by calling them genius, so i guess what im trying to say here is that every person is a genius in the eyes of a fanboy.




























By the way im drunk

Duh, that's why they're fanboys.

I wouldn't call Devin a musical god though because he's done some bad stuff (mostly by producing other bands). I'd call someone like Kurt Ballou one though, because everything he's played on and produced is gold (although both bands he produced broke up...wtf!!!).

Musically, Devin has done nothing bad. Of course, this is all subjective, as the things he's done has varied greatly in style. I find nothing he's done short of amazing.

As for him producing other bands; that's called getting paid. And do tell, what bad production has he done? Or is it, he's produced bands you dislike; thus, somehow it reflects badly on him?

I just don't like clean production in general for metal bands, so his style doesn't suit projects that aren't his own very well. I think the best example of this is Misery Signals, Mirrors sounds like they let a monkey fiddle with the volume knob, but it fits their style of music better than the album Devin produced. I wish he'd get more production deals for bands closer to his solo work than Strapping Young Lad 'cause thats what I think he'd be better at.

I understand this is a bit of a general question to ask as they do write very different types of music, but my frineds forced me to put it on 2 see wat other ppl thought.

Since I can't stand any Townsend music I have heard (only his SYL shit) I have to say the Opeth dude...but Ishahn makes them both look like pikers.

by genius we mean someone who is amazingly good and consistant at what they do. a musical genius is someone who plays well, and comes up with good music and new ideas consistantly. both of these artists do that so we refer to them as geniuses.
not everyone can do it.

Someone who plays amazingly good its a virtuoso, you can actually state that as a fact but coming up with good music its subjective, for every band i hate im sure there is at least one person who thinks theyre awesome, the point my drunk self was trying to make was about the "who is more genius than who" argument wich IMO its a stupid discussion, wich only translates into who you like the most.

umm... could Zakk Wylde be a musical genius?

yeah i know someone who can play amazingly well is a virtuoso but that doesn't cover the creative side which is what i was getting at. oh and i disagree, i don't think it translates into who you like most because opeth are not my favourite band but i still can tell that he is a musical genius.

So any creative musician its a genius? ok, so if all composers are genius then i guess, yes Mikael Akerfeld is a genius.



Ok this is how this thread started :


So now you have told me how is it that you think someone gets to be a genius, you said: "creativity" so the phrase in red should translate into "who is more creative" if you want to judge creativity by quantity then i guess youre right it doesnt translates into who do you like the most, but if thats the case devin definitely wins, there is no argument here, he has composed more music than Akerfeld thus making him more creative and by your definition more of a genius and thats a cold hard fact, but since this is a fact how could there be any argument here? it absolutely leaves no room for discussion, but...



what exactly is good music? can you define it in an objective manner? no, the term good music its subjective, and i repeat: for every band i hate im sure there is at least one person who thinks theyre awesome, so you see since youre judging creativity in the form of quality over quantity, it does translates in to who do you like the most.

Im not against calling a band or a musician a genius, the term can obviously be applied to a lot of composers, my problem is with trying to prove who is more genius than who, wich only leads to an endless and pointless fanboy discussion.

Oh and welcome to the the forums.

I thought this was just opinion anyways.

Wow, don't mess with Voice today.

okay if its a pointless fanboy discussion and you think its stupid then why do you keep replying? and in any case why do you have to be so obsessive over what we mean a genius is. its just a general term. someone can love a band but know that they aren't geniuses, and someone can think a band is alright but think they are geniuses. for instance, i don't love tool but i know they are geniuses because no one can come up with what they come up with and they keep turning out the goods.


oh and this was what the topic was about; opinion.

oh and thanks for welcoming me

You and your band
You fucking SUCK!
Hell yeah
You fucking SUCK!

Voice wins the thread.

But Devin wins the stupid poll.

I'm going to say Devy, because I like both Opeth and SYL, but I feell Devin is a little more consistently great