Controversial opinions on metal
- Thread starter The Ozzman
- Start date
Eligos
Problem Yet to be Solved
Still don't like Fourth Reich after all those additional listens, but Arckanum's latest took a couple listens to give me that viseral reaction.
I think it depends on one's mood, really, to get that kind of reaction, and thus multiple listens are sometimes needed to truly enjoy an album.
I really think prog should just stay in the 70's, bar a few modern prog rock gems like Lightbulb Sun and Judgement. I really can't think of any prog metal bands that I really enjoy consistently. Floyd, Camel, Genesis, Tull, King Crimson though....bout as good as it gets.
Badbird
Never banned
Mort Divine
Shrine Maiden of the In-Crowd
I fail to understand how Pain of Salvation is in any way pretentious on a musical level. Sure, Daniel has had moments that I as a fan find kind of cringe worthy such as the "no finger printing turning into no bush" thing but it rarely bleeds into their music.
V.V.V.V.V.
Houses Ov Mercury
Defending that statement might take you a while to do comprehensively...I suggest starting now tbh.
HamburgerBoy
Active Member
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They aren't "musically pretentious" in the way that five-minute-guitar-solo prog bands are, but it the music is affected when they go into these preachy melodic interludes about how we use a hundred times more water than the poor desert-dwelling people and such. If he was an unintelligible singer it would be ignorable, but he isn't.
JontRevolting
FALSE ARREST! FALSE ARREST!
I can't believe no one's mentioned Rush.Agree about Watchtower,Spastik Ink are killer prog also,with no annoying vocals
Blotted Science
Blotted Science
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rms
Active Member
Mort Divine
Shrine Maiden of the In-Crowd
What do you even mean by this?
I don't see how that is pretentious. Since when is social consciousness pretentious and something to be looked down upon?
Saparmurat_Niyazov
Member
It comes off as preachy. Aside from their music being shitty, that's what's wrong with RATM and SOAD. Plus, just spouting off statistics and triva as lyrics is fucking lazy and artistically uninspired.
Mort Divine
Shrine Maiden of the In-Crowd
Considering a few of the bands in your signature I can't help but feel that the complaints regarding that are based more on your dislike for the band than an actual dislike for that.
Saparmurat_Niyazov
Member
Megadeth is the only band that is remotely "political" (if we want to go down the road of using that term) band in my sig. Besides, that is my thrash metal themed sig graphic. I also made them for black, death, and overall favorites.
V.V.V.V.V.
Houses Ov Mercury
Comprehensively denying that PoS aren't musically pretentious is going to take a long time, so good luck. Then again, I suppose it could be argued they are more lyrically pretentious.
cookiecutter
Proceed to Ultraslamming
There's a place for social consciousness, but I think metal music is almost never it.
Mort Divine
Shrine Maiden of the In-Crowd
I've listened to them pretty damn comprehensively to the point that either I'm completely willingly blocking those moments out or I'm recognizing they simply don't exist.
V.V.V.V.V.
Houses Ov Mercury
HamburgerBoy
Active Member
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It's probably possible to be socially conscious without being pretentious. I say probably, of course, since other attempts coming to mind (whiffle thrash, for starters) forces me to cringe just as heavily as Gildenlow's many lame lyrics do, but still, I have faith that someone could do it. The problem with bands like Pain of Salvation and Anthrax isn't simply that "they care". When they preach it's done in the most clichéd hack-of-a-lyricist way, whining on about these HUGE and IMPORTANT and GLOBAL issues in ways that have been done a thousand times before. Musically I like Be quite a bit, but the completely overblown concept about over-population and rich people and over-consumption is just so fucking old hat and meaningless. If I want political puffery I'd rather receive it directly from a 70's environmental documentary and not pre-digested from the anus of some douchebag progressive metal singer.
EDIT: And just to clarify I really don't care that much about lyrics for the most part. Typically I ignore them and if it's a band I really love I'll check them out to see if they add to the experience. If they don't (Queensryche, for example), I'll try to block them out of my mind and focus on the music. Most of the lyrics on Be are ok; I'm a bit of a philistine so most poetic subtlety goes over my head, and that's fine with me. Sing about being taken to the ocean and the trees and whatever, fine, no problem, I don't consider something pretentious just because don't understand it. Just don't fucking spoil it with "Three Mercedes 350, two Ferraris / I Could have bought a Third World country / With the riches that I’ve spent" or similarly written garbage.
Mort Divine
Shrine Maiden of the In-Crowd
Well I recently mentioned on the Remedy Lane boards that I think Daniel really isn't an amazing lyricist. He has VERY good songs lyrically such as Her Voices, Beyond the Pale, Stress, The Perfect Element, etc. but then goes and shits it up with pretty cheesy songs such as Dea Pecuniae, Sleeping Under the Stars, and America.
I don't really think of it as pretentious but rather cheesy and poorly written.
Though Dae Pecuniae was meant to be theatrical and I guess in a sense most things that are theatrical are by nature going to be cheesy.
EDIT:
For the record Martin Walkyier was absolutely god at the whole sociopolitical lyrical themes in Skyclad.
I don't really think of it as pretentious but rather cheesy and poorly written.
Though Dae Pecuniae was meant to be theatrical and I guess in a sense most things that are theatrical are by nature going to be cheesy.
EDIT:
For the record Martin Walkyier was absolutely god at the whole sociopolitical lyrical themes in Skyclad.
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