Metal Reviews

Yeah...those were the days.

Jaden and Misha talking about their bodies was the absolute pinnacle of this forum's discourse.

Where they trying to convert Metal Reviews into a gay site?

More like the nadir.

I remember Jaden being a prick.

No man ever loved himself more.

I'm all about loving metal.

To be fair, it should be noted that monsieur Stefan isn't exactly a stranger to metal.

But the questions being asked are valid ones.

Though by the looks of it, no longer interested in it too much.

Fair enough as everyone changes. Still wierd to continue with something one does not care much about anymore.

Some of the metal/hard rock/prog I listen to according to last fm:
Rush, Genesis, Uriah Heep, Steve Hackett, Yes, Judas Priest, Queensrÿche, Deep Purple, Scorpions, Iron Maiden, Pearl Jam, Metallica, King's X, Alice Cooper, Gary Moore, Motörhead, Mötley Crüe, Van Halen, Whitesnake, Saigon Kick, Magnum, Saxon, Led Zeppelin, Rage, Triumph, Bruce Dickinson, Aerosmith, Thin Lizzy, Rainbow, Avenged Sevenfold, Blue Öyster Cult, Killing Joke, Hammers of Misfortune , Great White, Faith No More, Terrorvision, Black Sabbath, Def Leppard, Devin Townsend, Dream Evil (these are only artists with 100 plays or more)...

Remember I'm one of the oldest around too which explains why the above list is somewhat "vintage"...

Vintage is good.

Most of the stuff I listen to is vintage be it 1980's Thrash and Heavy Metal, early 1990's Death Metal and mid-90's melodic Death and Symphonic Black Metal.

Even the new stuff I listen to is generally by decades old bands.

I almost never listen to any pre-2000 metal... earlier Neurosis and Devin Townsend is about it these days.

I listen to whatever the hell I want, and dammit, people like me.

When I read this, it occurred to me that the idea of not being able to ever listen to pre-2000 metal again is incredibly depressing...

As far as I am concerned, people are hanging on to the past.

I think it is completely ridiculous some of the albums I have bought over the years considering the year I was born.

I have come to my senses very recently. I am no longer interested in even hearing some fucking album from the 80's unless I have a real attachment to it.

I made the decision that I basically do not give a flying fuck what UFO, Scorpions, Thin Lizzy, Accept, Judas Priest or any other band that is far before my time was all about and have no desire to even listen to those albums any further than I have. It's really simple. There are much better bands that suit my tastes. Exactly how am I supposed to put into context a 30 year album that sounds dated and usually has worse songwriting, production & performances. If I haven't heard it yet or didn't love it. I don't care. I'm making an exception for the first 5 bruce maiden albums which I thought sounded awful as MP3's, just like anything else pre-digital recording, because that is exactly my cup of tea and I never got to give it a fair shake.

I never wanted to listen to a louder version of the stones or the beatles in any event because I thought those bands were shit. My ideal band writes songs that clearly demonstrate that the band cares about their music enough to become virtuoso songwriters and performers. I worked extremely hard as just a fan to learn extremely demanding material because I cared about those songs, what they meant to the writers and the connection that can be made. The least a band could do is the same. I agree with Neil Peart. Not being able to play at the pinnacle of your artform is a character issue and there is no excuse to be had if you put something subpar out.

Metal is supposed to be about challenging the status quo, so what does metal represent now? Basically everyone sucking the dicks of people that will be in retirement homes in 5 years and pretending that the music they created in an era of corporate marketing machines, limited exposure to alternatives and a press that turned opinion into fact and more or less told people what they were allowed to like, was somehow much more pure because of it's popularity in a deliberately created music market where the rec. cos. wanted the money from people that had no respect for what they perceived as contrived entertainment for those who were not as smart as themselves

I will say this again. I have no respect at all for bands anymore that take cliched songwriting formulas and write around them. I'll give you a hint, if they can't tell me exactly why they chose the key for the song, they are not musicians. This goes double for anyone that downtunes and thinks it will "make it heavier" as the reason for it. You have to be fucking moron who has no business composing music to believe that horseshit. I have to ask myself these days when I hear a piece of music if the artist in question understood what they were saying with the notes. Writers with a poor sense of hearing tonality always reveal it with music that aimlessly wanders around and it is never quite clear what the key is or it is using the functions of a different scale in the wrong context.

Ronnie James Dio was a master songwriter. He was one of those people that truly understood how songwriting works, which is evident by the variety of keys he wrote in, for example.

I'm not gonna bring up the name again, but certain tall blonde people that smoke lucky strikes who play 7-string guitars downtuned because they understand that Eb is a more sullen, serious, romantic and flat out emotional key than the carefree E. So he downtuned to compliment his writing style and added more strings because he understands that string tension plays a major role in the way a guitar note is expressed and actually plays the entire neck. When I see competence of this magnitude, I know that the band respects me - the listener, their own music and wants me to take their music with the attitude that they are sharing a part of themselves.

I might be alone, but I am completely over trying to be diverse or celebrating all the aspects of metal. Especially glorifying a fictional past. Fuck That. I like professional musicians with chops that know how to write amazing songs and know what the purpose of a song is for. When did this stop being about art? when did people start bands because they thought it would be fun to pretend to be a musician? The aging baby boomers can keep their primadonna rock stars who admittedly don't know how to write a song in any other way that to accidentally play something different in the process of learning someone elses song.

IF you are still reading this and play an instrument. Throw all your damn tab books, sheet music and other bullshit away. Learn the scales and what they evoke and you'll be able to figure out an entire song far faster than you could by reading the tab book. And you will learn how music is supposed to be made.

Digging in the past is the best way to understand the present and anticipate the future. Plus, those albums already took the test of time.

My sentiments exactly.