J. said:
totally agree about the Opeth comparisons and the British Three. Just because another band is melancholy or uses acoustics or is doom, or uses guitars doesn't mean they sound like one of those 4 bands, which, tbh, aren't really all that great, other than early Opeth and early Anathema
I wonder how much labels are involved with this?
Almost every label press release makes a band comparison these days on your behalf -- it's like they're subliminaly influencing the reviewer even
before the review has been written.
Typical general band comparisons:
Opeth, At the Gates, Katatonia, Amorphis, and perhaps My Dying Bride.
So either there really are lots of clones of these bands, OR we're being led into thinking that these bands have set the benchmark. Play melancholic guitar chords in your band? Oh you sound like Katatonia.
Of course, nobody ever draws the Katatonia fascination with The Cure, simply because 90% of metal fans don't know who The Cure are, but I digress...
Imagine a world where labels sent promos out with nothing but a band biography. Since a review is entirely subjective, I think you'd get lots more variation in review descriptions across the board. Maybe?
