Controversial opinions on metal

[SentinelSlain]

Gothic by Paradise Lost is one of the greatest metal albums of all time. It may not contain any of the best metal tracks of all time, however.

 

[matt schrauben]

It's all just standard "pump your fist in the air" radio rock. Inoffensive, vanilla, dull.

I very much agree with this. Fewer things put me to sleep faster than BLS music. I find it to be pretty generic and dull.

 

[Dak]

It's all just standard "pump your fist in the air" radio rock. Inoffensive, vanilla, dull.

I very much agree with this. Fewer things put me to sleep faster than BLS music. I find it to be pretty generic and dull.

BLS turned into a parody of itself starting with TBH and continuing through Shot to Hell, but outside of BLS itself I don't know how it qualifies as "generic" or "vanilla".

 

[SomeGuyDude]

I don't know how any of it qualifies as "not generic". There's nothing about it that stands out. Zakk is a good guitarist, the riffs are enjoyable, and the lyrics are... well they certainly are lyrics, but there's nothing there that would ever make me stop and buy an album.

BLS falls into that category of bands that can't make me take any action when it comes to their music. If it comes on the radio I'll leave it there, but if it's on another station I'm not gonna go to it. I'm perfectly happy whether or not it's playing.

 

[Dak]

I didn't know people on this board listened to radio lol.

My wife refuses to make use of her Bluetooth connection and SDcard in the vic, so if I get in after her it is on the local rock FM station rather than syncing to my phone immediately. If BLS happens to be on (My Dying Time made it on the radio) I'll leave it until it's over and then switch to BT pairing.

 

[The Ozzman]

Razor is medicore

 

[ProphetofHatred]

Razor is medicore

Nope.

 

[SentinelSlain]

Symphony X became really boring when they incorporated chugga chugga.

 

[waif]

Symphony X have always been boring, because prog metal is just boring music.

 

[SentinelSlain]

These days I prefer it to meat and potatoes traditional metal songs.

 

[waif]

When you inevitably start hunting women please blame it on Dream Theater.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Razor is medicore

Sorta. Their songwriting for the most part is nothing special, and most of their albums are samey (even if the albums themselves have some differences between each other), but the energy and Sheepdog make it all worth it. The albums without him are pretty boring though.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Symphony X became really boring when they incorporated chugga chugga.

When did they not have a lot of chugga chugga? From what I remember, even their mid-period stuff had a lot of that, albeit with weak production. For me, Paradise Lost is the only Symphony X album even worth listening to, although there are gaps in my listening of them.

 

[SentinelSlain]

That's the one I own and it's so boring. The earlier stuff is way better.

 

[SomeGuyDude]

Symphony X have always been boring, because prog metal is just boring music.

I feel like if we could transplant the King Crimson of the 60s to today and say "this is what you've inspired" they'd be furious. Prog was initially a movement of expanding the boundaries of rock. Now it's a very, very specific sound. You hear a band and go "oh that's prog". It's like when they dropped the -ressive off of the word, they also shed the meaning of it. Nowadays any band that uses polyrhythms and noodly guitar riffs is "progressive rock".

It's sort of like post-whatever. It was initially about using the basic tools of rock or metal but not being limited to the intro/verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus/outro structure. In a way, post was the new progressive.

Then post fell into its trappings as well. Post-metal is atmospheric sludge and post-rock is soundtrack/ambient rock. I love both genres, but it's a shame that sounds which begin by shedding the shackles of conventional song structure just end up making new conventions that everyone follows.

 

[The Butt]

SGD: That's just the way it is. When enough people like a specific sound, people will copy it and "run it to the ground" (I use quotes because I like it when this happens; the more bands in a style I enjoy, the better).

 

[Westsiyeed]

SGD: That's just the way it is. When enough people like a specific sound, people will copy it and "run it to the ground"

I was going to say a similar thing; over time that's the nature of things.

But there are also many current bands doing different things and doing it well, like Ihsahn incorporating sax into his distinctive style of music and (dare I say it) Opeth changing direction and creating something a bit new. Other bands like Ørkenkjøtt and Hail Spirit Noir inject some originality into their music.

Personally I much prefer music to be progressive/different/avant-garde to some degree - I find "meat and potatoes" metal kinda boring, it's the same old shit.

 

[waif]

I feel like if we could transplant the King Crimson of the 60s to today and say "this is what you've inspired" they'd be furious. Prog was initially a movement of expanding the boundaries of rock. Now it's a very, very specific sound. You hear a band and go "oh that's prog". It's like when they dropped the -ressive off of the word, they also shed the meaning of it. Nowadays any band that uses polyrhythms and noodly guitar riffs is "progressive rock".

There are bands that have inherited the boundary-pushing attitude of real progressive music, but few of them are referred to as prog because they fit better into other categories. "Prog metal" has come to refer to a fairly rigid sound defined by Dream Theater and Symphony X and it's fucking awful.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

tbh King Crimson themselves were quite a bit different from others of their time. Dream Theater & co. probably took more from Yes, Camel, and ELP than King Crimson, Gentle Giant, and the other more experimental bands. So yeah, most progressive metal is far from "progressive" in the literal meaning of the word, and a lot of it doesn't even fit in the sense that it's supposed to be technically challenging, but the number of truly progressive bands has always been miniscule. There were hundreds of uninspired prog rock bands of the 70s as well (see: Starcastle).

 

[SomeGuyDude]

I was going to say a similar thing; over time that's the nature of things.

But there are also many current bands doing different things and doing it well, like Ihsahn incorporating sax into his distinctive style of music and (dare I say it) Opeth changing direction and creating something a bit new. Other bands like Ørkenkjøtt and Hail Spirit Noir inject some originality into their music.

Personally I much prefer music to be progressive/different/avant-garde to some degree - I find "meat and potatoes" metal kinda boring, it's the same old shit.

Opeth, unfortunately, took everything original and unique about their sound and just became dull "prog rock". Blackwater Park really was boundary pushing. Mastodon did the same thing roundabout Remission and Leviathan. Both bands are still talented, but no longer interesting.

I do love it when guys like Ephel Duath, Wreck and Reference, Smallman and others take disparate styles and start turning them into new monstrosities. It's just a shame we don't see it more often.