M.A.N. - the first microtonal metal band

[Kazrog]

Check this out:

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=126070

Pretty crazy, huh? I never thought I'd see this happen, check out all those frets!! Interesting how the extended scale instruments always get used for djent metal first.

 

[Line666]

Pretty boring and unispired sounding to be honest. Heard a million bands like this before even if these guys dont use western music scale

 

[Kazrog]

Yeah the music sounds a bit gimmicky, but that's how instruments and FX get sold (for example, I'm sure Pantera's "Becoming" sold a lot of Digitech Whammy pedals!) You have to do something gimmicky to generate interest and then you can get away with being more subtle/tasteful. Good gear marketing if nothing else - I'd love to see Schecter have the balls to mass produce a microtonal guitar.

 

[JeffTD]

I think it sounds kind of cool, actually. Exotic twist on a stagnant sound, but that's about it.

 

[TheDriller]

"First" is a very strong word in this case,
Blut Aus Nord have been experimenting with Micro-tonal and Spectral music for quite a while.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkGuapcwxOA&feature=related[/ame]



and lets not forget the later work of Deathspell Omega

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwd9GLhe0&feature=related[/ame]

 

[FalseMessiah Mike]

Its a shame they fade it out when it actually starts to get interesting. Before that it was a bit generic.

 

[SocialNumb]

Guitars look cool. The music still= loud distorted guitars and some dude screaming.

I guess they deserve a cookie. Only one chocolate chip tho.

 

[zvish]

sounds like Drowning Pool or like Transport League booooring stuff this days

 

[Ola Englund]

I kinda now the singer from M.A.N. Tony... Sings in a Pantera-cover band aswell!

 

[DanLights]

sounds like korn with drowning pool, but in a bad way. Sucks IMO

 

[TheWinterSnow]

I don't think people are understanding the concept. With eastern tunings, generally the music is somewhat not in the same structure of what we would consider good music. Example, Drone Hindi music, or anything with a Sitar and quarter tone vocals, there really is no hook or melody, or at least it is no constructed in the same way as western music. I think what is throwing people off is that it sound too close to western music that it is mistaken as non dynamic, boring etc etc, when in reality its nothing close to western music.

 

[egan.]

I don't think people are understanding the concept.

Does that really matter? With music I've always found "concepts" interesting for things you like and irrelevant for things you don't.

For the record I have mixed an incredible amount of Indian classical music. It's actually extremely dynamic and isn't atonal at all.

 

[TheWinterSnow]

Does that really matter? With music I've always found "concepts" interesting for things you like and irrelevant for things you don't.

and that is completely subjective.

the non-western quarter tones scale is not going to used in western sounding music. And it does take getting used to hearing music that has a different basis of tonal temperament. The structure of what the eastern world utilizes will be different then ours. Same as classical and preclassical music did not have the common verse chorus concept. Their ideas of what sounds good will be different, just as some cultures over east think that having an elongated neck from adding rings to purposely stretch your neck or strapping a board to an infants head to flatten it is attractive and that round heads and normal length necks are ugly. The quarter tone scale was not designed for western music. It is incompatible with western music, just as Eastern Languages have no common ground to western languages and are completely incompatible.

We are talking about completely incompatible cultures that have a total different preference as to what is pretty/attractive/appealing. To learn their language/culture/music you have to forget everything you know and relearn a totally different perspective of humanity.

 

[GarethSE]

It's nice that they've finally graduated past the monotony of semi-tones, but fuck, it's not like they're teh OMG TEH MOST NEW AND INNOVATIVE THING EVER
Middle Eastern music (and pretty much any other regional music) is miles ahead of western in terms of technical achievement and use of weird scales, chords, and concepts.
What do we get? The pentatonic scale. I feel fucking ripped off being a westerner.

This band's fucking boring too; apart from the very end when it started getting all middle eastern sounding, but even then, if I wanted to listen to that but done really really REALLY well, I'd put a Secret Chiefs 3 album on and I suggest you guys do too.

And fuck, who needs quarter tone frets when you could just buy a fretless and have every microtone you could ever want at your disposal?

 

[DanLights]

I think the "concept" to me is this sounds just like a Korn/drowning pool/shitty nu metal clone with a middle eastern sounding intro. Maybe my ears aren't trained enough to feel those quarter tones but it sounds generic as fuck to me as any halftone numetal band

 

[GarethSE]

thats because they arent even making much use of the quarter tones

 

[egan.]

We are talking about completely incompatible cultures that have a total different preference as to what is pretty/attractive/appealing. To learn their language/culture/music you have to forget everything you know and relearn a totally different perspective of humanity.

That is what you are talking about, but that isn't what I'm hearing. Hence the issue I take with stated concepts.
I don't hear anything approaching ragas or talas...just western music with quartertones.

But this is a dumb argument because if someone doesn't enjoy it the explanation is beside the point unless you are writing a dissertation.

 

[Line666]

It's nice that they've finally graduated past the monotony of semi-tones, but fuck, it's not like they're teh OMG TEH MOST NEW AND INNOVATIVE THING EVER
Middle Eastern music (and pretty much any other regional music) is miles ahead of western in terms of technical achievement and use of weird scales, chords, and concepts.
What do we get? The pentatonic scale. I feel fucking ripped off being a westerner.

Yes, western scale is so monotonous it has given birth to thousands of years of vastly different musical ideas and all the bands you listen to today.

To be honest I think most of what you said is pretty much subjective bullshit, to argue that something as vastly different as types of scales are in some way superior or not to each other just doesnt make sense.

There is plently of technical achievement, wierd scales and modes and concepts in western music, as well as middle eastern, to say one is better than the other just sounds like you're talking out your arse.

Bottom line with this band for me is simple, its like someone sprinkling chocolate over a turd, it still tastes shit, no matter how much of it you put on, or in this case, how many extra notes there are.

 

[slashvanyoung]

Jeroen (bassplayer) from Obscura studied microtonality and I had a brief chat with him about that too when we played with them.

It's definitely an interesting concept and some execute it better (DSO) than others (M.A.N.). But I haven't heard much of it in a heavy context that wouldn't have been achievable in a similar way by just expanding the use of the classical western tonal system.

Just don't blame the repetitiveness of today's heavy music on Bach! <3



Edit: Yeah, I'm very much on-line with Öwen here.

 

[GarethSE]

I was referring more to pop music or folk music but I guess I didn't make it entirely clear