Metal Reviews

So, being a fan of music, what are some things that bands/labels do that irritate you? I have a ton:

1. RE-RELEASES

Roadrunner started this lame ass trend and I hate them for it. No band should have their album re-released by a major label when the first pressing was widely available in that country. I can see if it's a release that came out overseas a year before and is now being re-released in the States, or if there was a limited run originally (a local band independently releasing a CD, then a major label picks them up and re-releases it, for instance). Labels do NOT need to be re-releasing an album within a fucking year! Lamb Of God have not only had their Burn The Priest album re-released, but now their Lamb Of God debut is being re-released! WHY? It's 5 years old and readily available!

Roadrunner continues to re-release albums with shit for bonuses, and now they've got their 25th Anniversary Editions coming out. By the name you'd think the album came out 25 years ago, but no...they're just more fucking re-releases. Lame.

2. DIGIPAKS/CARDBOARD SLIPCASES

I hate 'em! A CD a week old looks 10 years old. They get beat up so quick! And the slipcases get overlooked constantly because I never see them. They suck.

3. BANDS NAMING THEIR 3RD ALBUM 3 OR III, ETC.

Lame. Stupid. Retarded. Unoriginal and totally lacking of creativity. Any album title signifying the sequential number of said album is stupid.

4. GREATEST HITS/BEST OF ALBUMS/LIVE ALBUMS

If you haven't been around long enough to release 5 albums, don't release a fucking Best Of! The same goes for a live album! And if you haven't had at least 12 hits, don't fucking release a Greatest Hits album...you don't have that many! Release a Greatest Hits EP!

I have more...but I'm going home now...I'll post more later.

Digipaks are nice if they are like in the style of hardcover books like Aina or Arena - Pepper's Ghost. Otherwise I cannot understand why they are made - who the hell wants them?? I will always choose jewel case over digi.

I can't stand slipcases.

I could also do without the stereotype of metal chicks as fat, groupies, or both.

People who disagree with me.

Honestly though, a major one has to be poorly packaged tours. I think every show I've ever been too has had at least one shitty out of place band that no one liked, and that simply didn't belong on the bill at all. I will never understand why bands that obviously have no place on a death metal bill still get on a fucking death metal bill, and so on. It's not like the people booking this shit can't figure this out beforehand if I can fucking do it.

Case in point, Soilent Green, Decapitated, Nile, Hypocrisy. That tour should have been those four bands, end. Four bands is god damn plenty. But no, they had to squeeze in With Passion and Raging Speedhorn, who were out of place, and got either bad reception or literally NO reception at all. Decapitated brought a lot of fans to that show, and yet they get 5 fucking songs so two bands no one wants to see can play. It's infuriating.

The book versions aren't digipaks then. I think some bands think they are neato or something. Also I think they're cheaper. I can appreciate a band doing it with recycled paper and whatnot, but 99% of the bands that release digipaks don't use recycled paper, so fuck them. Haha.

er, the media. because of magazines I spent a good amount of years thinking that the Manic Street Preachers were underground and that james dean bradfield was both the best guitarist and vocalist that ever lived. I'm kinda glad that I ordered a healthy dose of cynicism for my 15th birthday.

not only that but I hate the way that "indie" magazines can make a band fail or succeed on a whim, it's pretty pathetic. that sort of thing steered my opinion for a while and I feel pretty dumb for falling for it all.

also, melodic death!

For a moment there I forgot you were a reviewer. Part of the media. A cog in the vast hype machine.

:evil:

C'mon! I gotcha!

yeah, haha, i got pwned. I stand by what I said, though, the magazines a lot of people recognise like Kerrang, NME, Rolling Stone or whatever can pretty much print any insane opinion and a lot of people who seek no secondary source of info will take it as fact. I suppose that's nothing new but it amazes me just how well that can manipulate people..

I'm not sure what pisses me off more, though.. the media or the people who blindly follow it.

For instance: the armies of British emo/corekids that love Dragonforce. They don't listen to Power Metal - half probably don't know what it is, the other half think its silly ("man it's not as deep as Trivium. I mean, that song 'Pull Harder on the Strings'....that is my life!" ROLLROLLROLL) and yeat they adore DF because Metalhammer have made them the cool Power band.

Just to keep the rant going, their review of the new Edguy album started with more or less these words: "2006 will be the year Power Metal breaks. Leading the charge will be our [UK's] own Dragonforce and Swedish [crappy metaphor] Hammerfall. Edguy will be one of the cool but not as great bands tagging along behind." I mean AAARGH!! This will be the year Power Metal gets big? Why? Because you said so?

Fucking music media.

--

Other things that hack me off:

- again, poorly packaged tours and weak digipacks.

- Digibooks and other forms of packaging that are too big to fit in a CD rack. What an utter pain in the arse. Especially for someone like me who is anal enough to alphabetise his CDs, being left with this big fuck off thing balancing on top of the rack.

- Inept venues and stewarding. I've had a bitch in one of the recent gigs thread about missing Sabaton at the Dragonforce show despite getting to the venue only 15 minutes after the doors opened. What's the point of printing "Doors 7:00pm" on the tickets if you need to show up at least half an hour early to see the first band?

- Crowd surfers. I always do my best to hurt them in some way (whether that's allowing them to fall or punching them depends on the cirumstances).

Too many support bands! Aargh.

Or worse, as Rad said, when there is, of once, a support really worth seeing and you miss them because of shit organisation.

I went to see TDEP last year. The crappy queues outside mean I missed the first half of a 20 minute set by Ephel Duath- despite getting there very early. But never mind, because I got to see a whole hour of Poison the crappy Well.

And yeah, I echo everything said about the media.

Compilations: That goes for both greatest hits CD's and 'best of [insert genre or something]' CD's. Songs taken out of context are never quite the same.

Limited edition/handnumbered copy stuff: It forces you to buy albums before you 'need' them fearing that it should get sold out.

trans-genre special guests :evil:

I hate digipacks
I hate new songs on lame compilations
I hate re-released albums with exclusive bonus tracks
I hate Copy Protected cds
:evil:

i totally agree on the last 2 :evil:

They encourage theft (as if i needed any encouragement). I'll be filching the bonustracks on the new Helloween remasters, possibly the entire albums if the sound is greatly improved.

I can't stand it when an album has some bonus material which is a remix that sounds no different from the original. Example Morbid Angel's Altars of Madness that had a few bonus tracks which sounded no different and Megadeth's Remastered version of Peace Sells.... Dammit it has 4 of the 8 tracks repeated . For that reason, i can't get myself to listen to that entire album at one go. The worst of all is Motorhead's All The Aces. It has a techno/dance version of Ace Of Spades. Blasphemy ! Fortunately that is the last track, so i can just turn my set off before it starts. Here are a few more instances of screw ups by recording companies that makes me mad. All with tapes i purchased

1) Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses - Black #1, don't think it's a great track, but it was cut, not edited, cut ! to just 4 mins from it's original 11+, one of the tracks is cut short on side 1 and is continued on side 2. I luved that album, but had to return it.

2) Suffocation - Breeding The Spawn, Pierced From Within - Four tracks on each album are cut inspite of there being ample space on the tape. Returned both of them.

3) Death - Symbolic - The last 30-45 secs of the beautiful guitar work at the end of Perennial Quest is cut ! Decided to keep it anyway.

4) Sinister - Diabolical Summoning/Cross The Styx - One track is absent and instead of that, Corridors To The Abyss is repeated. Kept the stuff since it has so many great tracks.

5) Kataklysm - Sorcery and The Mystical Gate Of Reincarnation - The last 2 tracks on each side is cut short. Kept the tape.


This one takes the cake

Fleshcrawl - Soulskinner - I turn it on and surprize ,surprize ! Bolt Thrower's Honour, Valour, Pride is playing. Returned the tape.

This new mash-up shit where some retarded dj isn't content with sampling (stealing) one song, he has to mix two or more together.

Also I hate generic radio rock with a fucking passion, ie Bon Jovi (the new Bryan Adams), Nickleback, Creed, etc.