Originally posted by markgugs
I certainly never said I'd pay for a 'tribute' band, but this elitist attitude doesn't allow for ANY bands to build upon and grow a scene. There would be NO Helloween if not for Iron Maiden. There would be NO Iced Earth if not for Metallica & Megadeth. There would be no Pain Of Salvation if not for Dream Theater and most likely, Queensryche. Those bands are "leaders," wouldn't you say? Or at least were at some point. My point being that many, many bands wouldn't even exist if all forms of music weren't derivative in some way, shape or form.
Ah, but see, influence is not a problem. Iron Maiden may have been crucial to the formation of Helloween, but there aren't very many Helloween songs that would have fit on any Iron Maiden songs. Helloween is quite different than Iron Maiden. So Helloween took that influence, and made something new with it. Growth. Bands like Heavenly and Edguy to me sound like they're out to prove there were many songs left off of Keepers II for some reason.
Originally posted by markgugs
Hell, 2 of the most popular power metal bands these days are Primal Fear and Gamma Ray. It's fair enough to say that neither band is exactly original. But is Gamma Ray simply a clone of Helloween? Is Iron Savior simply a clone of Gamma Ray (wait, don't answer that one). Is Primal Fear simply a clone of Judas Priest? Lost Horizon = Manowar. I mean, come on, it's just not that simply. And if it IS, then perhaps you might want to ignore the entire power/prog scene, since there isn't anything being done that's very original these days anyway.
Primal Fear are one of those cases that drive me nuts because I should very well hate them, but... they never fail to get me headbanging and such. But it's not like it's a Johnny-come-lately band though, because Mat Sinner and Ralf Scheepers have been around 15-20 years anyway. But as far as being important, I mean I don't think heavy metal would be any different if Sinner just continued as it was and Ralf stayed with Gamma Ray, you know?
Whether Gamma Ray is a Helloween clone, well, it's almost like it had better be or something, because the founder of the Rays was also a founder of Helloween who got out right before they started skiing down Mount Bullshit (thanks to whoever wrote that originally, haha).
As for Iron Savior, I've always thought it far ballsier and heavier than Gamma Ray, but again we're talking about Piet Sielck, who was with Kai in the early 80s before Weikath came along. Sielck co-wrote a good portion of the Walls of Jericho material (which is different for sure from the Kiske era), you know? If Iron Savior had just released that one debut album this would be a much easier thing to justify, but I've enjoyed all four albums, even if the last three haven't been necessary...
But if I were deciding things, I'd look at bands like Iron Savior and Primal Fear and think, "OK, are they strong enough to carry a headline position?" If so, book em on top, if not, I wouldn't book them at all.
I see absolutely zero similarity between Lost Horizon and Manowar. They certainly don't sound alike. The only place I think the argument can be made would be the gimmick/persona, but after looking into it intensively, they aren't the same at all. Manowar uses metal as the ultimate thing... Lost Horizon uses metal as a means to an end. Lost Horizon's lyrics are not about metal.
Originally posted by markgugs
Move on over to death metal or doomy atmospheric stuff. Grab hold of some Nile or Agalloch if you want original music.
I already do. For power metal though, Blind Guardian continues to really push the envelope and not rest with recreating their own previous albums, or sitting on genre standards, so for me, that Friday night with BG and PoS headlining, that's my definition of pure musical euphoria and it will be a grand night!
Originally posted by JayKeeley
@JimLotFP - with all due respect, do you find that since your profession of editing a fanzine forces you to flush out the intimate details of each CD you hear (or indeed, band that you meet), then this perhaps makes you a little more intolerant to the unoriginal aspects of the genre? In other words, have you ever just sat back, chilled out, and really enjoyed the music regardless of how derivative it sounds - rather than treat it in such a clinical manner?
I started doing music writing BECAUSE I was already a picky son of a bitch who thought a lot of things were being given an easy ride just because they're metal and/or underground. But it's gotten worse, the more I hear, for sure. And I greatly admire those writers far pickier than I...
Originally posted by JayKeeley
And how would bands like Edguy, Freedom Call, and Heavenly not be pushing the genre forward since the only artists getting true exposure these days are Nu Metal bands?
... because the blueprints of what those bands you mention were doing were not only laid down anywhere between 5-15 years ago, but there aren't even changes being made to them. And the albums just keep coming, and coming, and coming...
Why the mention of nu metal bands? To me, their existence is irrelevant to power metal. If power metal WERE #1 on the charts, and the MTV Music Awards had the ProgPower lineup performing, would originality of new power metal bands be any more or less an issue?
Power metal has made some people serious money, albeit in Europe and Japan, but ignoring the past 10 years just because we're in America and we're trying to recreate that here, I hope it doesn't happen because that's just so sad. It is my hope that ProgPower is, and will be well into the future, very successful based on exciting new bands who bring progressive and power metal forward... and not a museum for fans to look at bands that might as well be encased in a time capsule, trapped in 1980/85/90/95/00 or whatever the case may be.
Shouldn't people be mad that their favorite music is being FARMED?
