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

[Mort Divine]

At the Gates...

Their first two albums (also the only two that matter) are not at all what you're describing

 

[PrincessHades]

Oh please. Cannibal Corpse arent overrated. Every younger death metal fan would rather hear wimpy teenagers in cloaks growl on to poorly written Lovecraftian plagiarisms while sipping a single craft beer and contemplating if he wants to let his girlfriend that wouldnt come to the show with him peg him after she jokingly mentioned it. He wants her to do it to the beat of the murky riffs hes listening to, but he's not allowed to listen to metal around her. He wants to shoot himself but doesnt believe in owning a gun so he drowns his sorrows in Starbucks.

CC's albums from Eaten Back to Life, TotM, The Bleeding, The Wretched Spawn, to today are obviously different and pretty much all kick ass.

Honestly that all sounds like fun...

 

[Bloopy]

No but it is though. BIIIIG time. Entombed are constantly featured in Top 10 death metal lists, whether in the iconic bands, songs, or albums. Left Hand Path gets as much promotion and rep points in death metal as, I dunno, Sepultura for thrash. It's sooooo overblown. And the Swedish "death metal" scene in general. If you actually pay close attention to the songs, as in pick every individual riff apart and analyze the tabs and look into the calibre of the musical ideas, it's probably one of the more simplistic fields in metal I can think of. It's basically a huge wall of sound, and a dark ominous vibe overall, but the actual music is incredibly basic and could never draw the interest of someone outside the metal spectrum. I'm just saying early Swe death metal is very very simple musically, and therefor can be uninteresting to some (who're looking for more than just big sound).

Almost sounds like the reverse of your What's wrong with th current metal scene thread with you now arguing for the technical bands, haha. Lots of people outside the metal spectrum love basic music so no idea what you're on about there.

 

[theflyingmachine]

Entombed and Anthrax are spot on for this title. I can't get into Dismember now matter how much I listen to it
Others, which seem to be entirely appreciated here...bolt thrower and The Chasm

 

[EternalMetal]

Testament, because none of their albums are above mediocre.

 

[The Ozzman]

Testament, because none of their albums are above mediocre.

First two albums would like a word with you

 

[HamburgerBoy]

And Low.

 

[The Ozzman]

And The Ritual

Fixed that for you

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Falls into mediocrity rapidly.

 

[PrincessHades]

Testament, because none of their albums are above mediocre.

I almost said Testament. I like them quite a bit though, I just dont get why they are hyped up so much. The first album was mostly great though.

To me Exodus does the same thing but better.

 

[PrincessHades]

And Low.

The title track on that one is probably my favorite Testament song, kicks ass. Dont know about the rest of the album...

 

[Bruticus]

Testament are so overrated, I wasn't even close to thinking of putting them on the overrated thread.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Testament is overrated by fanboys and certain true-frasher cliques but they're underrated by the in-crowd masses that pretend they're the most generic thrash band in existence. Peterson was a very capable and tight rhythm guitarist and aside from maybe Damage Inc, their early riffs sound nothing like Metallica riffs despite the frequent comparisons. Skolnick is obviously great, and while Chuck Billy doesn't have the widest range, he has a distinctive and appropriately tough voice. One could argue that they did catch something of a lucky break in that they were signed to a major label before any of the big four were, being part of a second wave of thrash bands after the founders, but whatever. I think Exodus was praising Testament before they even had their first demo out, and of course they'd steal Zetro away shortly later, so it's clearly not just pure luck that they made it big and Heathen, Laaz Rockit, etc didn't.

The Legacy is so much better than anything Anthrax, Sodom, Roadrunner-era Sepultura, or post-PtK Kreator released.

 

[PrincessHades]

I think the guys in Testament are better musicians than many their contemporaries but musically their stuff isn't as interesting. Saying The Legacy is better than Anthrax or Sepultura makes sense but its a stretch to put it over anything by Sodom or Kreator.

Also those bands you mentioned are way more consistent than Testament.

 

[The Ozzman]

I honestly prefer Exodus to Testament these days. After the Testament poll, I found 3 albums I go back to with any consistency and the rest I listen to maybe once every 18 months if at all.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Well yeah Exodus is obviously supreme.

Testament is relatively consistent compared to the other bands I mentioned. PWYP is dry and lame, and Souls of Black is an uninspired half-retread of that. I don't like some of their newer melothrash stuff either. Despite that, they never fell to the depths of post-Roots Sepultura, nor post-Cause for Conflict Kreator. Sodom might be more consistent, but Sodom was never better than pretty good.

 

[Bruticus]

Okay, ppl are going to hate this one

Megadeth. But here's why for me: I totally understand the whole "they're real thrash Metallica were just mainstream thrash", that in comparison they were the more technical band all that... but I mean Mustaine to me is basically the 4-chord chromatic progression thing (Call of Chthulu, Hangar 18...) that tons of bands copy-pasted like Arch Enemy, or even more iconically the first track to the Doom videogame. Like, it was such a metal cliché it even served as a soundtrack to the most blatantly pro-metal videogame at that time...
Marty Friedman and his solos, all that...

but to me what I really hear is a brand of thrash that just sounds way too bluesy, it's basically blues on distortion with the whiniest vocalist you've heard, his very childish/immature puns and mentality... definitely some good music and good songs there, but when I think of Megadeth I think of the second part in Holy Wars "NO MORE MISTAAAAAAAKES" or the intro to Symphony of Destruction. "You take a mortal man.." with that caricature of a snarly voice... It's just a very very cheesy atmosphere globally, and despite the musicianship being good and all, it's often quite difficult to take em seriously.
Anybody ?

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Megadave is extremely inconsistent, but if you reduced every metal discography in the world to a single cohesive album, his would probably be the best. The bluesiness/jazziness of the first two albums is a big part of what makes them so excellent.

 

[Bruticus]

I just think generally, as a theme between Death earlier in the thread and Megadeath now, that certain bigger name bands in metal got it too easy because they demonstrated or at least appeared to demonstrate good musicianship. It's a bit of an obsession in metal, it's all part of the respect point system, the more technical the more serious the truer the more underground the band that sort of thing... whilst forgetting the superior priority of quality song-writing (over technicality). A lot of bands benefited tremendously from being the first to do something or at least the first-that-managed-to-get-famous-at-the-right-time doing something, all of the Death, Megadeth or Dream Theater in my opinion are gimmick bands although all distinctly different very demonstrative, and, superficial - never got to the deeper ends of their respective sound or musical project.


PLEASE NOTE: Definitely not painting this black and white, I could just as easily share my thoughts about the better elements of those latter three bands, but this is a comment as to why they're overrated. I'm not saying: these 3 bands suck, nothing about them is good, everything they did is garbage - I'm saying: they're overrated.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Nah. Megadeth does have great musicianship, but it's the songwriting that really sets their classic stuff apart. Songs like Wake Up Dead, The Conjuring, Set the World Afire, Hook in Mouth, Holy Wars, Hangar 18, Five Magicks, etc all have pretty different song structures and ideas behind them that make them interesting even when you put aside the flashy solos. Mustaine himself is overrated as a lead guitarist, but it's his riffs that always put the band on top.