"Melody" in DM, A sarcastic reviewer's remark

OurFinestCoward · **Joined:** Sun Sep 19, 2004 5:30 am **Posts:** 237

Quote:

“Melody”, for those of you unfamiliar with the word, is an important musical concept first invented by Iron Maiden some time in the early to mid eighties, and later perfected by Swedish bands in the late nineties. It mainly involves heavily-produced lead guitars playing sugary sequences of notes and simple harmonies, with special attention towards making sure that everyone in your potential audience, including anyone who might be afflicted with severe brain damage, will have no difficulty whatsoever following your music. That’s what I’ve managed to infer by reading the copy generated by other metal reviewers and label promo departments, anyway.

The context of his sarcasm is Vital Remains' Dechristianize.

He brings up an interesting point to discuss. My stance is, the type of band VR is, and the lack of talent whore soloing (meaningful, midpaced, moving melodics are opted instead), justifies the melody on Dechristianize. However, I agree that melodies are over produced, and make everything sound the same, all the while making the genre more accessable. Death metal is supposed to sound like DEATH, and represent change! If sacrificing your ability to be super likable initially for long term strength and originality is too much, then you prolly shouldn't be making music anyway, I mean right? It's not like the musicians can make a living off their albums, anyhow.

Quote:

All sarcasm aside, any claims that the lead guitar work on this album is really adding any originality or emotion can be dismissed out of hand. Very few metal bands seem to have the capability to write very distinctive melodies, or they just don’t bother. To my ears, here on this album they’re as typical as anything one might hear on a metal album, although they might surprise people who expect all death metal albums to sound like the inside of a car engine (that is, they make the music more “accessible”, yay). Vital Remains aren’t even the first “real death metal” band to take a shot at incorporating this kind of guitar style, and they surely won’t be the last. My half-serious theory is that as “successful” NWOSDM bands move closer to nu-metal, brutal death metal bands are sliding into Gothenburg territory to pick up the slack. Who really knows.

LOL at the last part. This guy is pretty funny. Taken from Metal-Archives.com.

http://metal-archives.com/review.php?id=16895

Radical Cut · **Joined:** Sat Jul 09, 2005 10:19 am **Posts:** 960

Quote:

Death metal is supposed to sound like DEATH, and represent change!

It's supposed to represent change and yet you want it to stagnate? I understand that some people think melody is the worst thing to ever be introduced to extreme metal, but I can't say I agree. Even death metal needs to go somewhere, if that means crafting melodies sometimes instead of just start-to-finish absolute chaos and reckless abandon for anything musical then so be it.

Radagast · **Posted:** Tue Oct 04, 2005 10:42 pm

I agree, too many people dismiss melodic DM out of hand simply because it seems to go against the 'rules.' If you don't like it, fine (a lot of it is crap) but dismissing something because you don't think it fits into the confines of the genre is a crazy way to look at things.

OurFinestCoward · **Joined:** Sun Sep 19, 2004 5:30 am **Posts:** 237

You read my statement wrong... It's more like, "Death Metal is supposed to sound like death AND represent change." You know, like at the SAME TIME. Sorry, but notice I didn't follow in suit, and bash VR like he did. I defended them, but I still hate that melodies commonly fall into the same basket of over used crap that should be left behind by metal once and for all. Make a melody, and invoke all the change you want, just don't forget you're death metal, and for god sakes, MAKE IT FREAKING STAND OUT! If you can't make a melody that isn't in the vein of something else, try adding something else to your Death Metal. Because otherwise you're limiting yourself.

OurFinestCoward · **Joined:** Sun Sep 19, 2004 5:30 am **Posts:** 237

And like I say, just with my enjoyment and respect for Vital Remains, I think there are exceptions, both for Death Metal and Melodic Death Metal.

And I surely don't expect it to be chaos and total abandonment of 'rules' or anything like that. Deicide's last album was straight forward, and the solos were one trick on different bars, but damn... they were outta this world. At least I think so. And now, I raise my hands to cover my face, because I feel a pelting for liking Deicide.

noodles · **Posted:** Wed Oct 05, 2005 2:26 am

hehe good old In Flames ^_^

Metal Reviews

"Melody" in DM, A sarcastic reviewer's remark

Who is online