Unpopular Rock and Metal Opinions?

SilverScreen · 21-07-2014 7:12am

Eh, Tad were one of the original grunge bands. They toured regularly with Nirvana in the late 80's and were certainly not clones who followed in their wake. I wouldn't be the biggest grunge fan but I certainly find the lyrical subject matter more relatable than glam metal. Although glam metal was a bit of fun, that's all it was really, just throwaway guilty-pleasure music.

As for grunge killing traditional heavy metal? Trad metal had already exhausted itself and become out-dated long before grunge. Even thrash metal had reached the end of its life by the early 90's. By the time of grunge, metal had evolved into black metal and death metal and these genres kept metal evolving through the 90's and received attention from mainstream media. I think metal was in good shape throughout the 90's and 00's regardless of genres like grunge and nu-metal.

VegetativeState · 21-07-2014 2:11pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxQk3DC3gL0&list=PLDA2DE499516564FC

Sure there he is, bein a sap. And I normally don't like dissing a bands entire fan base as a means of criticising the group, the fans are all individuals of course, but listening to gob****es goin "tell it like it is, brother" makes that stance difficult

And yeah, Mastodon haven't excited me much since Leviathan. They're definitely the commercial end of sludge (not necessarily an objective criticism, just not to my taste). Still some daycent tunes, and the "epicness" of their newer stuff is kind of fun.

iamthestig · 27-07-2014 5:24pm

SilverScreen wrote: »

I definitely don't like Mastodon as much as I used to. They were a great band on their first 3 albums but I'm not particularly fond of the path they've wandered down since then.

I also think that their guitar solos on their more recent albums are completely pointless (in fact I generally think that 95% of guitar solos are completely pointless), they're just thrown in there for the sake of having a guitar solo.

I know bands evolve, sometimes for better and sometimes not, but I certainly miss the Mastodon that blew my mind and ears with Leviathan.

Crack The Skye is a quality album in fairness. As is the new one and the Hunter was decent.

iomega · 27-07-2014 6:22pm

Ah lads, IMHO, Pantera were the best metal band of the 90's, followed closely by Sepultura. Anselmo is what he is, that's what makes him believable.

sentient_6 · 27-07-2014 6:27pm

I think Phil comes across great in this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOEEWb-JD6s

Links234 · 28-07-2014 11:50am

DazMarz wrote: »

The rantings of a bitter glam metal fan? For sure!!! But some home truths contained therein? Quite possibly...

Unpopular??? I'm just waiting for the backlash now!!!!!!!

I'm not hugely familiar with glam at all, but your post was a great read!

But this along with the Pantera discussion is funny, because as well know they used to be glam themselves:

Mushy · 30-07-2014 12:47pm

DazMarz wrote: »

Glam metal killing heavy metal? Nah, not a chance. Grunge did that. Well, almost. Metal, the traditional metal, was dealt a blow from which it is still recovering. Grunge possibly only meant to take out glam, but it nearly decapitated the whole genre while it was at it. Thankfully, it's hard to keep a good man down, and many bands have returned to the fold. But it is not the same. Grunge disfigured a beauty queen.

The rantings of a bitter glam metal fan? For sure!!! But some home truths contained therein? Quite possibly...

Unpopular??? I'm just waiting for the backlash now!!!!!!!

I don't think "grunge" meant to take out anything. A catchy riff in Smells Like Teen Spirit around the breaking of MTV made it look that way, it was the "in" thing at the time. Happens all the time sure!

Say Your Number · 16-09-2014 10:20pm

Time to re-boot this thread

Exile On Main St. is a vastly overrated album.

Phil Rudd is one of the best drummers around, he doesn't get any recognition because he's not a show off.

Stone Gods were way better than The Darkness and Dan Hawkins is an idiot for killing them off completely.

RichFTW · 16-09-2014 10:31pm

Say Your Number wrote: »

Time to re-boot this thread

Exile On Main St. is a vastly overrated album.

Phil Rudd is one of the best drummers around, he doesn't get any recognition because he's not a show off.

Stone Gods were way better than The Darkness and Dan Hawkins is an idiot for killing them off completely.

For me, the thread was pretty much won by the guy who said Death Magnetic was better than all other Metallica albums! Hard to motivate yourself to read the thread again knowing it's unlikely to be topped. :pac:

bnt · 17-09-2014 4:12pm

I never got massively in to Grunge, but I liked some bands associated with Grunge, particularly Pearl Jam. With "Ten" they struck me as just a rock band, trying to make the best music they could with the resources and experience available to them, and I thought the results were "honest" music.

I mean, I want bands to do their own thing, to be ambitious, to stick their noses in to areas they're not "supposed" to go. I don't see "pretentious" as a bad thing, when it comes to music. If you try something, and it fails ... well, then we've all learned something in the process. Unfortunately, this "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks" approach doesn't jibe with the need to get paid ...

My unpopular Metal opinion? If you're going to sing, I want to understand the words you're singing. I have no time for "vocalists" who try to sound like animals. If you're just going to roar or grunt in to the mic, I'd rather you just shut up altogether. That's my opinion.

Generic Dreadhead · 17-09-2014 5:16pm

Slayers music bores the living $hit out me I walked out on them at a festival after 4 songs

Pyr0 · 17-09-2014 6:14pm

Links234 wrote: »

I'm not hugely familiar with glam at all, but your post was a great read!

But this along with the Pantera discussion is funny, because as well know they used to be glam themselves:

The album "Power Metal" is in my opinion, one of their best albums.

Links234 · 17-09-2014 6:28pm

Pyr0 wrote: »

The album "Power Metal" is in my opinion, one of their best albums.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAh9Kr2nHHk

SilverScreen · 17-09-2014 7:33pm

bnt wrote: »

My unpopular Metal opinion? If you're going to sing, I want to understand the words you're singing. I have no time for "vocalists" who try to sound like animals. If you're just going to roar or grunt in to the mic, I'd rather you just shut up altogether. That's my opinion.

But they're not trying to sing.

Grayditch · 17-09-2014 8:28pm

People would have said in the past that unclean/distorted guitars were just noise.

bnt · 17-09-2014 10:12pm

SilverScreen wrote: »

But they're not trying to sing.

I have no trouble believing that - which is why I called them "vocalists" rather than "singers". :pac:

SilverScreen · 17-09-2014 10:33pm

bnt wrote: »

I have no trouble believing that - which is why I called them "vocalists" rather than "singers". :pac:

Fair enough.

Most of the time I don't care about lyrics, the music takes priority over lyrics for me. A lot of artists I listen to you can barely make out the lyrics anyway. I think it's a bit shallow if you can only rely on lyrics to feel emotions from music rather than feel emotions from the music itself. I also find it more interesting when a lack of clarity over lyrics leaves a song open to interpretation.

I think that growling and screaming works perfectly in certain contexts. There's no right or wrong way to do vocals, there's just different approaches to it.

bnt · 17-09-2014 10:59pm

SilverScreen wrote: »

I think it's a bit shallow if you can only rely on lyrics to feel emotions from music rather than feel emotions from the music itself.

Where did that come from? It certainly doesn't relate to anything I said. Some of my favourite music is instrumental.

SilverScreen · 17-09-2014 11:02pm

bnt wrote: »

Where did that come from? It certainly doesn't relate to anything I said. Some of my favourite music is instrumental.

It's not directly related to what you just said. It's just a point I made in general.

RichFTW · 18-09-2014 12:04am

SilverScreen wrote: »

Fair enough.

Most of the time I don't care about lyrics, the music takes priority over lyrics for me. A lot of artists I listen to you can barely make out the lyrics anyway. I think it's a bit shallow if you can only rely on lyrics to feel emotions from music rather than feel emotions from the music itself. I also find it more interesting when a lack of clarity over lyrics leaves a song open to interpretation.

I think that growling and screaming works perfectly in certain contexts. There's no right or wrong way to do vocals, there's just different approaches to it.

I'd be the opposite. I find a lot more emotion in a song from it's lyrics rather than the music. Don't see how that makes me shallow and I'd say it's more shallow to like a meaningless song just because it has a catchy tune or riff. I get bored of songs without meaning fairly fast unless the music is top notch. Talented musicians are a dime a dozen but it takes a special talent to write a memorable song lyrically.

Exception would be metal where lyrics are generally meaningless filler but I still love it because of the music. It can get pretty boring and repetitive though if the music has no emotion in it, which happens a lot given the amount of generic metal bands around. Example for me would be if you compare Deftones vrs any glam rock/metal band. Both have filler lyrics based on an overriding idea but Deftones create an atmosphere and an emotion though the music, glam rock doesn't and is just crap. A lot of other bands fall into this category for me as well if they have meaningless lyrics.

Useful.Idiot · 18-09-2014 9:43am

It should also be noted that in the better growling/grunting/screaming bands that for the full enveloping listening experience, one would be expected to read the lyric booklet while listening to the album. Lyrically, there's a lot going on with some of these bands.

Powerful lyrics coupled with powerful, affecting music is a tour de force of music listening!

StaticAge11 · 18-09-2014 12:13pm

RichFTW wrote: »

For me, the thread was pretty much won by the guy who said Death Magnetic was better than all other Metallica albums! Hard to motivate yourself to read the thread again knowing it's unlikely to be topped. :pac:

I stand by that opinion, its my personal favourite anyway

Links234 · 18-09-2014 4:48pm

I think that saying "I like growly vocals" would be a more genuinely unpopular opinion.

NufcNavan · 20-09-2014 1:24am

Fade to Black is my favourite Metallica song.

GLaDOS · 20-09-2014 1:34am

NufcNavan wrote: »

Fade to Black is my favourite Metallica song.

I'd probably have it my top 5 myself

Mushy · 20-09-2014 8:31pm

NufcNavan wrote: »

Fade to Black is my favourite Metallica song.

Same here!

Gunslinger92 · 21-09-2014 6:09pm

I don't miss Nick Oliveri one bit. The current QOTSA line up is absolutely fantastic and I hope it remains the way it currently is.

Lithium93_ · 21-11-2014 12:03am

I ABSOLUTELY DESPISE KISS

Angron · 21-11-2014 12:06am

Lithium93_ wrote: »

I ABSOLUTELY DESPISE KISS

While I largely don't care about their music, I loathe Simmons.

Links234 · 23-11-2014 3:59pm

I saw Kiss live in the O2 and they were fantastic, they really put on an amazing show. Ignoring Gene Simmons, it's no shock why they've been a big deal for so long.

Passenger · 23-11-2014 4:31pm

Links234 wrote: »

I saw Kiss live in the O2 and they were fantastic, they really put on an amazing show. Ignoring Gene Simmons, it's no shock why they've been a big deal for so long.

Not a Kiss fan in the slightest but a friend had a spare ticket so I went along to that gig and it was an incredible spectacle. Easily one of the best performances I've ever seen.

Links234 · 23-11-2014 4:39pm

Exactly, I never really listened to them much before that gig, but a friend suggested we go to it and they were amazing

Grayditch · 24-11-2014 10:34am

That gig was incredible.

Mr. CooL ICE · 24-11-2014 12:42pm

I am a Kiss fan, and that was a brilliant gig. Was like a 5 year old on christmas eve for the month up to it and it didn't disappoint.

However, I saw RATM shortly afterwards and thought they were only average

Whiskeyjack · 05-12-2014 4:37pm

Never Say Die is one of Sabbath's greatest albums

*ducks*

Rothko · 05-12-2014 6:35pm

Whiskeyjack wrote: »

Never Say Die is one of Sabbath's greatest albums

*ducks*

I wouldn't agree but I think it's underrated.

Mr. CooL ICE · 05-03-2015 3:13pm

Pantera's cover of Planet Caravan is better than the original

happyoutscan · 05-03-2015 10:00pm

The Black Album sucks.

BlaasForRafa · 05-03-2015 10:45pm

happyoutscan wrote: »

The Black Album sucks.

I think so too.

Also, Styper were a good band

Anesthetize · 07-03-2015 12:54am

happyoutscan wrote: »

The Black Album sucks.

That's a widely held view, hardly an unpopular opinion.

RayCon · 08-03-2015 11:47am

Motorhead are overrated.

Anesthetize · 08-03-2015 12:34pm

I've always found bands heavily influenced by Motorhead more interesting than Motorhead themselves.

Say Your Number · 12-03-2015 10:46pm

Appetite For Destruction is overrated.

I honestly don't get the hype about Thin Lizzy.

Youthanasia is a better album than Rust In Peace.

cro mags · 12-03-2015 10:53pm

John Bush was a better frontman for Anthrax than Joey Belladona.
His voice suited their sound and if he had been there from the start they would've been much much more successful.

Lithium93_ · 13-09-2015 9:12pm

Blaze Bayley era Iron Maiden is criminally under-rated, some good songs on The X Factor & Virtual XI albums.

Passenger · 13-09-2015 9:18pm

Virtual XI is underrated for sure. There are some fine tracks on there that stand up to and even surpass a lot of Maiden's Bruce-era output. Even his solo stuff is pretty good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll2cu2XMmpM

Links234 · 13-09-2015 9:20pm

I'm not a fan of his Iron Maiden stuff, but his solo work is great

Lithium93_ · 23-06-2016 2:22pm

Sammy Hagar fronted Van Halen > David Lee Roth fronted Van Halen.

Unpopular Rock and Metal Opinions?

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