History and Metal

[speed]

I am of the belief that metal as a genre is totally tied to the genre's history. I dont know of any other genre other than classical where this rings so true. One can throw on any new band and in a few seconds hear a riff or direct inspiration from Slayer, Celtic Frost... etc, etc. Every band is directly bulding on the foundation of an earlier band, its fascinating. I think this interesting somwhat linear historical evolution of metal is the reason why metal fans can go into a store and find entire back catalogues of bands- and buy them. So, am I full of shit: expand, disagree, issue a fatwa on me, whatever.

 

[JayKeeley]

Good metal is timeless. It has no sell-by date, but only about 3% of metal fans realize this. And 2.9% of them visit this forum.

 

[Hell Mike]

Actually many metal fans realize this and some hang at the metal gospel forum instead.

 

[NAD]

I hate hearing people say "you like that song? it's OLD!" referring to something from 1997. Granted, some stuff sounds dated, but a lot of metal doesn't, or if it does it has that distinct flavor that still kicks ass (like early 90's Swedish death metal).

Then there is stuff like Faith No More that sounds as good today as it did 10 years ago, there is no freshness stamp on it.

 

[JayKeeley]

Actually many metal fans realize this and some hang at the metal gospel forum instead.

Yeah, of course, I was just making teh funnay. Although NAD is right -- people will actually decide on how to approach an album by it's release date, which of course, is a bit silly. I'm not sure how people can write off entire decades - it makes no sense whatsoever.

Here are the rules:

1. Put music into stereo.
2. Do you like what you hear? If yes, go to 3, else 1.
3. Music is good. Enjoy it.

There might be some variations obviously, like the political or religous stance. Or maybe the music is good, but the lyrics are appalling. Or the production grates on your nerves. But as a whole, these are the basic rules. Life is best when kept simple.

 

[Hell Mike]

Yeah I understood the funay but among metalheads the rule of old stuff doesn't apply

 

[JayKeeley]

WHAT THE FUCK now I will NEVER get this Madder Mortum album out of my player!

1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 ad infinitum

OK wait...

How about changing rule 1:

1. Put NEW music into stereo.

 

[JayKeeley]

Oh, you meant different music. I geddit.

EDIT: Damn you and your swift postage

No, I think you were right the first time. My code contained a borderline infinite loop, so to mitigate all risk, I provided the patch upgrade.

Although the code is still in beta. Currently it would write off anything that you didn't like the first time you heard it. The next release, v1.1, will need to include an option for replaying an album you initially thought was only 'average', but might eventually learn to love. It needs to be more forgiving somewhat.

Speaking of which, are you ever going to give the Hammers a proper chance?

 

[NAD]

I remember doing infinite loops in computer science classes, it was always fun to work on code for 7 hours straight then have it crash everything while all you wanted to do was display "Hello World." *goes into convulsions*

 

[JayKeeley]

My computer is so fast it does infinite loops in 5 seconds

ALL THANKS TO TEH POWER OF LUNIX

oh lunix

Heh, you and your C64. I bet my ZX Spectrum 48K is faster than your C64. It has a Z80 processor you know. The C64 is just a snazzy Vic20.

My first computer when I was 11 years old:

Without the 16K RAM pack, it had 1K. I knew I had to upgrade to the Spectrum with rubber keys, oh yes.

 

[Caelum Adustum]

Offtopic: If the lyrics suck, then the album has limited value. Am I the only one that's like this?

All the other key factors must be there of course, but if it has great lyrics then I will love it forever.

 

[NAD]

I'm not like that at all. Case in point Hypocrisy, who have always had TERRIBLE lyrics, are one of my favorite bands. I do appreciate fine lyrics, but the vocal delivery is much more important to me.

 

[JayKeeley]

I have to admit, over the years, lyrics have become much more important to me. If you're looking for the perfect albums, then it has to be graded against everything which includes lyrics.

Example: An album can have great music, great emotion, great vocal delivery...but if the lyrics suck ass and are plain embarrasing, then I cannot give it the 10/10 BUY OR DIE score.

 

[lurch70]

Example: An album can have great music, great emotion, great vocal delivery...but if the lyrics suck ass and are plain embarrasing, then I cannot give it the 10/10 BUY OR DIE score.

Oddly enough, half the stuff you guys praise is not even in English ... Blut, Drudkh, Negura, etc ...

 

[JayKeeley]

Oddly enough, half the stuff you guys praise is not even in English ... Blut, Drudkh, Negura, etc ...

Yes, good point, but none of which would get 10/10 BUY OR DIE!! Perhaps 9.5 or something, heh. But seriously, this is personally new for me to be interested in lyrics. Even 6 months ago, I might have turned a blind eye or been more forgiving.

When it comes to non-English lyrics, they become somewhat of a moot point if I don't know the 'foreign' language. In fact, I'd rather a band stick to their original language than bastardize their own "pure" lyrics through poor English translation, weak intonations, etc. And since you can't understand some of these bands anyway....I dunno, some languages just sound phonetically more interesting/historic/romantic than English.

 

[spaffe]

Offtopic: If the lyrics suck, then the album has limited value. Am I the only one that's like this?

All the other key factors must be there of course, but if it has great lyrics then I will love it forever.

nah really good lyrics is what can lift an album to utter greatness (watain, latest DsO etc), but poor doesn't make it suck per se. for all i know negura bunget might be singing about hanging at the dicotech and humpin´them chix, but i still love NCB

 

[neal]

Example: An album can have great music, great emotion, great vocal delivery...but if the lyrics suck ass and are plain embarrasing, then I cannot give it the 10/10 BUY OR DIE score.

i guess you make exceptions for Maiden? (kidding, dont throw rocks at me)

 

[lizard]

interesting thread. I for one have always believed that Thin Lizzy deeply influenced maiden with the twin lead concept. Maiden used to cover "Massacre" sometimes live - can someone tell me if that's on any of the cds?

...........

as for lyrics I don't understand....I can go for it sometimes but I have a deep paranoia that I may be listening to someone in say Lithuanian crooning "ohhhhhhhplease suck my cock, you're so good at fellatio, wooooo wooooo" and if I was sitting there thinking, man, this is great music! *shiver*

 

[JayKeeley]

i guess you make exceptions for Maiden? (kidding, dont throw rocks at me)

haha. "You take me life and I'll take yours too!"

interesting thread. I for one have always believed that Thin Lizzy deeply influenced maiden with the twin lead concept.

True.

Maiden used to cover "Massacre" sometimes live - can someone tell me if that's on any of the cds?

No, not unless it's a bootleg.

as for lyrics I don't understand....I can go for it sometimes but I have a deep paranoia that I may be listening to someone in say Lithuanian crooning "ohhhhhhhplease suck my cock, you're so good at fellatio, wooooo wooooo" and if I was sitting there thinking, man, this is great music! *shiver*

Heh, you have to have faith I guess. The same way you trust the waiter not to piss in your beer, or spit in your food.

 

[speed]

Lyrics really dont mean much to me, if they are good, its icing on the cake. And in defense of Iron Maiden, well Bruce at least, I love his use of Blake for the Chemical Wedding album , pure genius.

What about other musical genres? Sure we hear rock bands, rappers and pop bands steal from each other, but what sense of history is there? Only a few bands have their entire catalogues for sale. Everything else is sort of a footnote.