The what's going on in Thrash thread

[Slammed]

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/fl...s-because-music-is-peoples-exit-from-reality/

I really think the headline should have been "We're hearing from the vikings!" That line sounds much better than the politics one, but once again the commentors take the cake. "They stay away from politics because they are closet Trump supporters". What brilliantly fucked up minds some of these people have!

 

[redfly]

Yeah I seriously don't know where people get this shit from lol.
I will say that Gilbert kinda pisses me off. First off Flotsam has tons of politically oriented songs. Second The End Of Chaos is not Power Metal. It has way too much aggression and bite. If he's talking about the vocals. Well Ak has always sung his ass off. Third, I take offense that he seems to think Americans don't care much about how they play the songs. And he sure as hell does not play many of the old solos the way they were written. He's been butchering the solo to Misguided Fortune for a very long time. It's probably my favorite of his. The whole remake of NPFD is full of butchered solos.
If anything Gilbert was the fly in the ointment for a long time. It took the badly received Ugly Noise to wake his ass up.

 

[Slammed]

I think all bands at times dip into political related songs. They might not all name a leader, or name a policy, but the world is political and it would be hard not to let some of that seep into songs. I guess when it comes down to bands/people like Dee Snider and others who actually voice political leaders names and policies in the media a band like F&J isn't political but vikings do talk to them!

I tend to take little notice of the genre speak, today a band might consider themselves hitting more of a power metal crowd because of their last gig, whereas next week with a different bunch of bands on the bill they think they are pushing into a speed metal genre. Then bring the media in that just make up genres and who knows what a band wants to be. Thinking they are power or speed metal this week really doesn't bother me.

I don't know where that thing about American's and their music came from, it's weird to label any one group of people like that. What's even weirder is that he seems to think he knows what fans actually do when they get home from work. Has he taken a survey and asked the fan club whether they come home from work shitty? But what's more important is that I'm not European or American, I don't know how I listen to music.

 

[redfly]

LOL! Those damn Vikings

Yeah it does seem like Mike is the type of guy that if someone tells him something he just runs with it just because it's a compliment to him. Even if he doesn't really know. As you know the last round they toured with Hammerfall. At the same time AK is saying the bands are two different worlds Mike is starting to say flotsam is power metal.
I don't know if it's an American thing or just a me thing lol. My thrash bands are sacred to me. And Flotsam was in the group of my first. To me power metal wasn't a serious business. They are fine, they have good musicians and good music but not really bands that are out to wreck you like the thrash bands, it just doesn't have that attack. And the subject matter was less based in reality. It's probably just me lol. It just rubs me the wrong way a little that after 35 years and one of their best albums he's running around calling the band power metal.
But I don't why I expect different from him. After saying that before he joined the band again he was doing dub step stuff and slipped some weird shit into Flotsam's Ugly Noise all the while saying it was heavy while it clearly isn't.

He's said a few things about American fans over the last few years. And some might very well be true. But they also have some very die hard fans here. He was also out of the band for a very long time. He jumped ship when the going got tough. They didn't do much to maintain an audience here. They didn't promote they didn't really tour. So now that they are hitting Europe hard, European fans are the best. Hell they don't even thank anyone but the European fans on the albums anymore.
Yeah! And what about all the other fans? WTF? I just don't get where this guy is coming from a lot of the time. He has strong opinion that don't seem to be based in much.

 

[Slammed]

The thing that would concern me about Vikings is that in a pit those horns would be dangerous. (although history actually tells us Vikings never wore horned helmets so I guess it depends whether F&J attract true Vikings or Hollywood Vikings ).

I've always treated genres with grain of salt. I look up bands on M-A these days and so many are classed in multiple genres. Thrash/Death, Thrash/Speed, Thrash/Power doesn't really worry me I'll give bands a go based on all sorts of different factors. I also wont write off a band just because they released one album in one genre and five in another. It's like all these people calling Anthrax or Overkill groove metal, until recently (10 years maybe) I hadn't ever considered them anything other than thrash, I still don't really, but it doesn't change my opinion of them. I like what I like from their catalogue no matter what genre it fits in. I think there is elements of power metal in the latest F&J and there will be a crossover of crowds but to me it's a darn good record and one I like listening too no matter what genre someone else wants to put it in.

I often wonder where bands get their idea of fans. I know there is fan clubs and meet and greets etc but it's such a small selection of people who actually pay to see the shows. Suggesting all of one country is X when you only spoken to 100 people is stupid and will ensure you cop the wrath of fans who don't fit into whatever you said. We've had a lot of bands leave Aus and become big in European countries. They spend months and months touring, get Euro record deals and pretty much move there. Some have been known to sprout the same shit about Euro fans being the best and whatever and good luck to them if they are going to concentrate all their efforts on one region then of course those fans are going to be their favourite, but for fucks sake saying it in the media is like telling the world you have a favourite kid, some things just don't need to be voiced.

 

[redfly]

Hmmm, I wonder who did start the horn wearing Vikings? Too bad it wasn't true lol. It looked cool

I think before..say 15 years (maybe even longer) ago genres were pretty spot on. Now ? Forget it. It's all over the place. You get a tiny bit of something on there and it makes a whole new genre. It's like people are desperate to be labeled something new so they can be considered pioneers. I would never consider Anthrax or Overkill groove metal. They have some groove. But a real groove band is very different. I think Testament's song The Legacy has a good groove to it. But would never consider a groove song in the slightest.

Yeah saying something like that in an interview is ridiculous. The last thing you want to do is alienate anyone. Flotsam had like no Euro fans for years, and basically only survived here, but now that they are concentrating most of their shows there. They are the only fans that count. What's funny is for years and years I told them they had to hit Europe and Japan and Cali but they wouldn't listen lol.

 

[Slammed]

From what I read it was writers of books years and years ago.

In the 80's it was "we don't want to be pigeon holed with one genre", now it's "let's create a new genre to be individual". I was probably more shocked at Overkill being called groove metal than Anthrax. For years many of the UK/Euro mags called Anthrax skate metal because they rode skateboard, although I never heard the term King metal because they liked Stephen King. But to me they were always thrash, although to be fair I don't know that I ever really had a need to classify them. I don't remember ever saying something like "I like Anthrax they are a thrash/groove/skate metal band." I'd have just said "I like Anthrax"

I wonder if the push into Europe is the label pushing their shit harder there and them following suit because they are told that's where their money is.

 

[redfly]

Well I guess those writers knew what they were doing because it really left a mark!

Hahaha skate metal, I forgot about that! It is funny. Because thrash is a pretty broad genre from band to band. There's singers, screamers, barkers. Some have a lot more melody, some have very evil lyrics and others not so much. And combos of all. If these bands came out today people would try and break them up into all different genres lol.

Yeah it could be that it's because they are on a German label now. And it's paying off and I'm glad it is. But don't just single out certain fans.
They made some really dumb decisions, like being on the label of that guy from Korn. they got zero support. That label crashed and reformed under a different name and they went with that label too with the same result.

 

[Slammed]

Legends and myths, it's amazing what we have been led to believe in some cases

I really thought the genre game had gone too far by 2000, but it's only gotten worse. I honestly do not think anyone could list all the genres that a site like M-A lists there is so many.

I suppose it makes sense that they do what the label says, it's the label's money they spend, but I agree there is nothing to gain by singling out any group. The strange thing is he claimed not to write political songs because they polarise people, yet singling out any one group/country because of what they do after work is pretty much the same thing.

 

[redfly]

Oh man there is no way I could name all the genres. I doubt anyone could. There's probably more I've never heard of then ones that I have.

I really don't get that guy at all. He seems nice enough, but I don't understand the things he says. He has a stupid take on things. And he certainly doesn't write lyrics. I don't think he ever did. Back in the day they had that guy Eric Braverman who was the unofficial sixth member and he did a lot of lyrics along with AK. But he started to act like he owned the band and they got rid of him.

 

[Slammed]

They should start the official M-A drinking game. Look down the list of genres and every time you find one you've not heard of you take a drink. Would be a quick way to get drunk!

Maybe the label told them they need a mouthpiece. It's worked for Dave Mustaine, Gene Simmons, Dee Snider and many others. Maybe they hope if he says stupid shit haters will yell and supporters will rally.

 

[redfly]

Haha! Man I'd be out in the first round!

Maybe they did, Mike seems to do more interviews than AK does. He's still got a ways to go before hitting the legendary mouth status of those guys though. Something to strive for!

 

[Slammed]

Even more fun would be to go and edit all the genres on wiki for the bands you don't like and make them something silly to see how long it sticks.

Never say never

 

[redfly]

Oh...now that's a great idea!

 

[Slammed]

We could take bets on which ones stick and which ones don't

 

[redfly]

That would be hilarious if one stuck and people spread it like it's a real thing like djent.

 

[Slammed]

Sillier things have happened

 

[Slammed]

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/da...a-friendship-i-had-to-give-up-some-ownership/

Interesting to see just how things play out. Most people have known that the Dave/Jnr alliance was not the same after they had their issues and people can guess all they like about what the figures are but whether it's his "I found god" thoughts or something else at least Jnr does handle himself fairly reasonable here. Will be interesting to see if Megadeth ever give it up whether the same comment arise.

There is an article linked in the comments that explains things a little further but again I do see a shit load more professionalism than many other musos and their bands.

 

[redfly]

It's a bit lame, but if Jr is cool with it then I don't see a problem. He didn't say ALL ownership although I didn't read the further explanation. Someone on blabber said Dave had to take Jr back or pay a bunch of money and that that is what happened to Lomenzo. Something about that sounds very familiar. It was weird, Dave was raving about Lomenzo and then boom, gone.

 

[Slammed]

There is a lot not said in that article and that's fine, it's their business. On face value I do understand where Jnr is coming from, money/business and friends can be a slippery slope and sometimes it's easier to take less to remain friendly. It probably reflects on Dave worse than it does Jnr, but if you walk away from something you can't always expect to come back on the same terms.

If Dave really had to take Jnr back rather than pay him then you have to say that the deal was amicable to both of them and Jnr not at that point demanding equal shares was a decision he made for his own reasons. I don't know the working laws in America but in this country there is a lot more benefits being on salary than there is being the prick at the top who pays the salaries.