Modern Metal is horrible!

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The Rossness

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In college, one of my music professors, he should be dead from all the Acid he's done, says that any sound is music. While we may not care for it, no musical genre is bad. He made us listen to the experimental machine/ techno from the 30's which he loved. It was a perfect example of garbage.

But I try and listen to modern heavy metal. I can appreciate the musicianship but I have to disagree with my former professor. I just don't get it. Its musical garbage! And that's not to say every single band is bad. I'm sure some of the bands are good, but I just don't understand the low tunings that all sound the same- what guys on the forums call BROOTALZ or DJent. To me, it sounds like a bad imitation of pantera that should have died long ago. How many times can you hit the low strings dude?

and the singers. WTF?????? yes, doing good gutteral vocals isn't easy. I understand, but growling like a pissed off doberman isn't music! Killswitch engage almost has it right and adds actual singing. Holy cow, what a concept!

I like the drummers. I think the double bass sounds really cool. I'd like to see more jazz drummers incorporate blast beats into their drumlines.

And where are the horns? why is it all so generic? What gives? The music just isn't music.

and no, this thread isn't a troll. I just hate the majority of modern metal I hear. Its refreshing to hear a modern band like Steel Panther or Firewind. Guys who are actually musical.
 
If you haven't heard and Coheed and Cambria, check em out you may like them. I'm not huge on the stuff either, Bullet For My valentine is a decent act. In Flames is probably my all time fav of the heavy genres. There is a fellow MTSer whose band "Mindcage" is finishing up their latest record with Michael Wagener entitled 'Our Own Devices'. Should be pretty cool. Not my cup of tea, something along the lines of 80's progressive metal maybe? Dietrick Hardwick of Salvation Mods is the guitarist. Check em out! Back to the lecture at hand, I love love love heavy *** music. But if it doesn't have melody, harmony, or anything musical going on then yeah....pass.
 
I'm with you.

It's not a "Get off my lawn" old man thing, either. I like lots of new music. But unintelligible cookie monster vocals are just silly. If can't understand what you are saying, then how do I know if the song speaks to me? The songs tend to get pretty interchangeable.

Also, the constant double kick is annoying. I like great drums, but just like any other effect, if it's overused, it loses its impact. It's the equivalent of constant Zack Wylde pinch harmonics.
 
I have quite a wide taste in music. My collection includes almost as much jazz & blues as it does metal. Plus folk, soul, R&B, straight-ahead rock, etc.

Having said that, I think there are loads of awesome new metal bands & older bands still putting out good metal. I'm not talking about djent or whatever the flavour of the month style is either. Haven't looked into those. If cookie monster vox aren't your thing, there are still plenty of new bands that have clean vocals. Some like KsE that mix it up, and plenty that are purely clean vox.

As great & entertaining as Steel Panther are, there's an irony to holding them up as a shining example of refreshing new band, given that they are a parody of early 80s hair metal.
 
Ask... And be prepared to receive Italian jazz metal progressive awesomeness in the form of The Passage by Ephel Duath

http://youtu.be/jk9wwlzuwJE

The video takes a few seconds to start rolling, but listen past the first blistering bit with cookie screaming for the Yes-like moment with mellow singing.

And feel free to giggle along... I always did when playing this for other musicians at work.
 
disk11 said:
Ross, what bands did you listen to? I might be able to post some recommendations.

I can't even begin to tell you. They all sound the same. I'll try to listen to Liquid Metal on satellite radio and it's all horrendous. Heck, I try to listen to gear demos online and I hear the same generic riffs, all tuned down terribly low. My ears aren't pleased. Why can modern metal make use of the whole fretboard? I know there are bands out there who do make use of not just the lows. I've heard good things from Lacuna Coil and Dragonforce. Dream theater tunes down sometimes, but makes use of the whole fretboard.

As far as metal-ish bands go, I listen to George Lynch, Impellitteri, Maiden, Van Halen, Dragonforce, BLS, Ratt, Steve Vai, Steel panther, Firewind, KSE and Children of Bodom occasionally (but their singing leaves a lot to be desired) The Darkness/ Stone Gods.
 
Tesseract
Opeth
Baroness
Mastodon
Blind guardian
Dillinger escape plan
Deftones
Devin Townsend
Isis
Katatonia
Neurosis
The ocean
Protest the hero
Red fang
Stratovarius
The sword

I tried to avoid bands that do mostly gutteral/cookie monster vocals.
 
I found Matadom's Punch the Sky album to be a nice fresh breath of air. Good playing, killer riffs and melodic singing.

Kind of a metal meets The Mars Volta with less screechy singing.
 
gag halfrunt said:
I'm with you.

It's not a "Get off my lawn" old man thing, either. I like lots of new music. But unintelligible cookie monster vocals are just silly. If can't understand what you are saying, then how do I know if the song speaks to me? The songs tend to get pretty interchangeable.

Halfway with you but since I often (also) listen to japanese popmusic
-which I don't understand a word of-
I'll have to say that Anything still has to sound 'musical'
and any floyd rose divebomb chord still sounds more musical than a person's voice going:
"OOOOOOOOOOOOhoooooohaaaAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHHHHH"
And those are just the 'good' parts
since the lyrics resemble a neanderthaler trying to communicate, more than a modern man singing a song
 
I am not typically one for prog rock/metal. BUT...two bands I strongly feel are well worth their weight are
Coheed and Cambria (ie: In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth:3, Welcome Home)
Fair to Midland (ie: Musical Chairs, Dance of the Manatee)

Killer songwriting and just all around good stuff. A metallic-flavored break from the aforementioned genres, IMHO.
 
Does a new Testament cd count as modern metal? Lol. I just picked up their latest and its awesome. There is also a great cover of Queen's Dragon Attack on it....as well as Iron Maiden's Powerslave. Skolnick is one of the best lead guitarist out there.
 
Even though I play what most would consider Modern Metal, I have to agree.
Too many bands trying to out do Meshuggah, bad song form, etc.

I went less extreme vocally on our new release, and brought in my influences from several older metal eras and I'm much more pleased with how it came out.
 
I'm actually very happy with a lot of djent music coming out recently. The production values are immaculate, and the players precision is incredible. But then again, I also like meshuggah so...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhcDPp1lnkg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYObZY0E4PQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8uAXIrxYNg
 
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