Metal Reviews

Well, I can't speak for him. I was being more general. So many people just trash artists for trying something new, whether out of artistic curiosity or need. They do this because they simply do not understand how this business works. No one knew that when Devin Townsend was going full steam will his solo stuff and SYL that he was also working at fucking A&W. Devin doesn't do that anymore because he now produces to compensate, but not every musician has the skill to produce. So they HAVE to do these other things.

It's a job for these people, and no one seems to want to acknowledge that. I bet some of you work some pretty shitty jobs. You work at a restaurant. Now imagine if all the customers that come in just fucking trash you and call you a sell out and a loser. You'd probably be a bit baffled by it all, right? You're just trying to make a living, put food on the table, pay some bills.

Why can't musicians do it, too?

Your analogy is kinda incomplete. If the restaurant you work at served some sort of weird esoteric food that only appealed to a small group of foodies who enjoyed and respected it, but then ditched the respectable food to make burgers and fries to appeal to larger audience, it would make more sense.... I still get your point, I'm just being annoying.

I just like to think I live in a nice dream wortld where people who choose music as a career do it for the love of it. If making money is the most important thing then go and do something else instead. Your Devin analogy kind of contradicts your point - Devin was making no-compromise music while earning his money elsewhere.

Saying that, if this fluffly shite is Heiman's true musical love, fair enough. Doesn't stop it being awful crap, and as a tremendous fan of his early career it just plain upsets me to hear him wasting his talent.

Owner of both LH albums, Awakening the World being the first power metal album I ever bought and heard (and still among the best).

I read a report saying that something like 90-95% of albums lose money ( EDIT: after looking this up, this wasn't what it said at all but it was along the lines of "few of the artists who release albums will make a living because only a few albums are ever profitable" and 25,000 of the 30,000 albums released each year sell less than 1,000 copies), so I listen to everything under the assumption that a musician is making music because it's what they want to do and has some sort of other job to make money.

Most professional musicians make most of their living off of gigging and playing shows anyway.

That's certainly tue but when you're an unsigned band (like Lost Horizon) there's not much to be made when you aren't on tour.

The music industry is fucking HARD. I'm serious. Even on a local level, it's a sonofabitch. The only time I have issues with musicians doing new things is when they fucking lie about it. Lars saying years ago that Metallica was always just a heavy rock band. That sort of nonsense. Def Leppard saying they've always been a pop band. Pffft! A little more understandable for them since Brit pop is vastly different from what we have here, but fuck them, they were a rock band. Cut the shit.

Then bands like Sugar Ray deserve a kick in the nuts. First album ruled. Then they got a taste of success on the second album with "Fly," and every album since has been acoustic pop shite. Nonsense.

But in general, people doing something new shouldn't be an issue for people. So it's not Lost Horizon. Who cares? There's a lot of Linkin Park fans out there, so people like this sort of thing.

I didn't really find it all that appealing, either. Go figure.

Got that right. I don't blame him at all. He's got a great voice, he should use it any way he can.