Pick one band and say what you think they're OVERRATED

[Bruticus]

Let's just pretend there aren't sensitive users around and the exercise of this thread is to simply make a case rationally for why a band is overrated. It can be a famous one, average, whatever.

If this works properly and smoothly, we can have a few cases to look at, maybe a few interesting unpredictable angles and then maybe discuss those a bit, but let's just bear in mind they're a person's opinion, nothing more.



Right. I'll start...
Death, the band, they fkng SUCKK man and they get aaaaaaalll that precious death metal pioneer credit, and their music is basic as fk, those binary riffs that keep repeating they just SUUUUUCKKKK !!!!!!!... okay
sorry.. sorry about that. It's uhm.
So, please give us one.

 

[The Ozzman]

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Death's riffs are pretty boring overall.

 

[Krow]

Its like saying TechnicalBarbarity in a mirror three times in a row.

 

[Satanstoenail]

I heard a faint HHHNNNNGGH UUUNNNNFFF in the distance

 

[The Ozzman]

 

[Phylactery]

I agree with Death. Good band, but nowhere near being one of the best death metal bands ever.

Perhaps now we are discussing the band this is the place to ask - what do people see in Chuck’s vocals. Nothing more than serviceable on the first two albums to these ears, and then they progressively get worse. By Human, and especially post Human I find them to be grating and annoying. They’re not particularly guttural, well enunciated or scathing so I’m not sure what the obsession is!

 

[theflyingmachine]

I used to go to a forum where people were absolutely ballistic about Death and remember reading someone write a poem to Chuck. If you had seen some of that, yeah, they are overrated. Here? Not overrated at all and maybe even underappreciated.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Chuck's vocals on SBG (and the demos) pretty much invented and defined death metal vocals. What would you consider to be examples of better vocalists in the same style, from around the same time? I'll give you Reifert and say that Tardy was comparable, but both clearly spawned directly from Schuldiner.

 

[Phylactery]

I’m not denying they were influential and I’ve already said the early vocals are fine. But the two you mentioned are better and then there’s the vocals on Into the Abyss which I also prefer. Tardy took the basic sound of Chuck and drenched it in vomit and vileness. They’re far more dirty, threatening and extreme. Some of Hellhammer’s vocals I also find to me more twisted and sick than Chuck’s as well.

By the early 90s though, there were countless extreme metal vocalists that far surpassed Chuck in terms of delivery, conviction and passion. While his vocals really declined - he sounds like he’s in pain and not in a good way. The vocals on later Death actively irritate me actually.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

I'm not talking about his later vocals, I'm talking about his earliest vocals, which you also dismissed in your initial post. Poison's and Hellhammer's vocals are not even death metal. Stop listening to the same ten albums over and over.

 

[theflyingmachine]

While his vocals really declined - he sounds like he’s in pain and not in a good way. The vocals on later Death actively irritate me actually.

Spiritual Healing seems to be the least favorite among many but it's definitely his best vocal performance. TSOP is also one of my favorites but it's jarring at first because he's clearly unable to do what he did earlier and had to modify hos vocal sound. It doesn't bother me now but did when I first heard the album. I don't really think Chuck's vocal performance is what made him so appreciated though

 

[Omni]

Kam Lee was the vocalist in Death when they were called Mantas and Chuck basically just emulated what he was doing when he left the band. If you want to credit Death for defining those types of vocals, then Kam Lee is actually the guy that gets the credit.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Kam Lee was a third-rate Nasty Ronnie ripoff sans falsetto.

 

[Omni]

I know that you grew up with a hearing problem, but you don't have to go out of your way to show that it still persists. The mix on those demos is pretty bad but it's really easy to tell that Kam Lee was doing the same type of thing that Chuck wound up doing when he took over as the vocalist. The fact that the recordings are amateur rehearsals might make that hard to hear if you're bad at actually listening to things or decide to go by some bad tenth-generation t

People who actually buy albums might even have the demo compilation where the songs were remastered and sound a fair bit clearer (still not great) and it's painfully obvious that Kam was already doing those more guttural type of vocals that Chuck did on the early Death albums, as well as the higher vocal fry screams that Chuck employed. Please learn to hear properly.

Oh, and Mantas and Nasty Savage formed in the same year and put out demos at the same time. I love Nasty Savage way more than Death, but your assertion that Kam Lee ripped off Nasty Ronnie is pathetic and baseless.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

The only guttural thing is the introduction. Just listen to the pre-chorus; he basically barks it ala Ventor. He doesn't even sustain a note, like alone gutturally. As far as I know, the earliest Mantas demos were still recorded in 1984. Nasty Savage had an album's worth of material performed in 1983. Obviously you've only listened to the shitty reverb-drenched Death By Metal demo and a hundred self-fellating Kam Lee interviews.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Also, since Kam Lee's dick is clearly blocking your ear canals, here's a comparison of clearly-recorded demos from the same month and year.

Chuck Schuldiner:



Kam Lee:



Schuldiner sounds like a full-fledged death metal vocalist. Kam Lee sounds like a cartoon villain.

 

[Omni]

Any particular reason why you wouldn't link the 1984 Mantas demos to prove your point? Is it maybe because you know that I'm correct because his vocals on that Massacre aren't even performed the same way as the vocals he did in Mantas in 1984? In particular, he altered the pitch of his vocals to be lower and chose to use more of his voice rather than vocal fry growls and screams while he was in Massacre, as opposed to his performances in Mantas where he had a much more feral and harsh vocal style that featured death growls and screams.

No other vocal performance by Kam Lee is relevant to a discussion about whether or not Kam Lee's vocal performances in Mantas were emulated by Chuck when he left the band, which is obviously the case.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

I clearly said that I linked that 1984 live performance because it's of higher quality than the Death By Metal demo. Is Kam Lee's dick in your eyes as well? But fine, here's the demo and a rehearsal from the same year:



Point out particular moments that you think are relevant. His vocals are harsher and better than that 1986 demo admittedly, but they're also higher-pitched. Not really that different from, say, Paul Baloff's harsher vocals.

Also, thanks for reminding me to post that demo, where Kam Lee can be clearly seen sporting a Nasty Savage shirt (inb4 "B-but I didn't say Kam Lee didn't know Nasty Savage, I'm just saying there was no influence").

 

[The Ozzman]

since Kam Lee's dick is clearly blocking your ear canals

Is Kam Lee's dick in your eyes as well?

You forgot one obvious orifice tbh