Time to call it a day?

[MetalJonesy]

ermz, tbh i think the only metal bands i can think off the top of my head that are really pushing boundaries are opeth, meshuggah and mastodon. and out of those, mastodon are the only one that seems to be getting stronger and stronger (opeth/meshuggah starting to exhaust their sound somewhat IMO).

check out mastodons latest album, crack the skye if possible - really awesome.

totally agree Ed, Mastodons records just keep getting better and better!

 

[Ermz]

Will do, thanks Ed. Have snuck glimpses into this record over time, but never really got stuck fully into it.

 

[Machinated]

always good having some work from the likes of matt bayles, rich costey and brendan o brien.

i cant speak enough good words about crack the skye as far as recent metal albums go.

in terms of your search, i kind of know what you are going through; if you can, really try and appreciate music you might not otherwise like. being cynical is useful in terms of assessing, but at the same time try and see why the generic shite is appealing to the masses and take the good out of it (im not talking about the crabcore shite, more in terms of pop/chart music). I probably have more enjoyment listening to that kind of stuff these days than most metal.

 

[Dalinkwent48@aim.com]

Peoples taste in music sometimes changes over time, Maybe its just your time now? I have noticed alot of your posts have been geared more towards ambient music. Why not give that a shot.

 

[ratsapprentice]

I fail to see how opeth push any boundaries.

 

[Mago]

There is DEFINITELY more all-around absolutely horrendous scenester heavy garbage being pumped out these days than ever before, but as many others have already stated, there is also still plenty of good metal being put out by a lot of respectable bands. Yeah, the respectable bands don't seem to get the attention or the spotlight that the scenesters have gotten in recent years, but metal has never been about taking the spotlight to begin with. I just find what's good, and ignore the terrible stuff; don't give hardly a minute's thought to it, because it's not even in the same class...it's just, nothing.

And for what it's worth, there are still plenty of smart, like-minded individuals working in the legit metal label world, who crave and respect the creative and legitimate metal just as much as you or I do...so all is not lost.

+1 to this.

Ermz: If you're mostly into atmospheric/ambient stuff I wouldnt take a look for it in "metal" that much anyway...
Classical music FTW!
also: I think it's easy to get fed up with metal soon if the only band you're listening too right now is Meshugga^^

altough it's true that it also got rare for me to hear something new and get an instant "wow" *heabang* factor of it...maybe this comes when you dig more into production...

 

[Melb_shredder]

Not sure I understand this all the same. I'm usually working in some capacity with half a dozen bands at any one given time. How much broader do the horizons need to be? Once again, I don't know if you realize this but when you make a statement like that, it's openly patronizing, much the same as mch was when he took a swipe at your band recently. Saying 'no offense' in no way negates the inherent tone or content of a sentiment. I'm in contact with artists, producers and engineers from all over the world, at any given point in time. The idea that my view of the industry is somehow solely derived from my experiences surfing the net on a forum is silly. In the face of how lucky I am to work with whom I do, and have the contacts that I have, it would be pretty counter productive to start trawling pubs for talented bands to suck up to. That's an A&R guy's job.

There are no places to go and see a dark ambient or soundtrack performance, yet those are currently in the lead as my favorite forms of music. It has nothing to do with exposure, or engrossing oneself in the scene. I highly doubt it's going to be Melbourne, of all places in the world that will shatter my world view and reconstruct the way I look at metal music, if only I went to more gigs that guarantee deafness before 30. It's a perpetually repressed scene. I've been more or less part of it in some shape or form for the last 12 years, long before I ever thought about production. There is nothing here but dead ends.

Well that's why I said no offense, it's a forum post, despite my efforts it could be taken that way. MCH was being openly offensive, there's a difference XD.

I know Au is useless for that, so understandable, I just mean that, you aren't spending your day looking for music etc like most bored jobless metalheads are XD. You probably don't have the time, and I can see that given the ungodly hours you work at these days. I think the music is out there, and like all the gems, it's generally hidden from sight and takes some deep searching to find.

Sorry if you took it offensively, none intended, i hope this post makes a little more sense to you

 

[GarethSE]

What Tom said. Opeth do what was done over the course of the 90's in a far more watered down, repetitive way, especially on Watershed. Seeing 90 minutes of Watershed material and 20 minutes of Cynic in the same night felt like the biggest slap to the face ever.

 

[HandsOfDespair]

What Tom said. Opeth do what was done over the course of the 90's in a far more watered down, repetitive way, especially on Watershed. Seeing 90 minutes of Watershed material and 20 minutes of Cynic in the same night felt like the biggest slap to the face ever.

This. I kind of lost hope with last 2 albums, only liked 2-3 songs on each album. The last 2 songs on Watershed are mediocre.

 

[Ermz]

Used to be a huge Opeth fan between 2002 and like 2008. I only got into them on the tail leg of their career, so to speak. I bore witness to Deliverance, Ghost Reveries & Watershed, all of which felt a bit average compared to BWP, Still Life and MAYH.

 

[NNotN-ENN]

I also don't think there's a problem with listening to the same old bands you always enjoyed ad nauseum. There are plenty of guys in this thread going "yeah, well I don't listen to any metal at all really any more" ..... why? Did you ever legitimately like it? I listen to a vast amount of different shit from maudlin of the Well to the Knife to a Tribe Called Quest to M83 to Venetian Snares to Defeated Sanity to Iron Maiden.

Good music is good music and it doesn't stop you listening to the old good shit just because the majority of new stuff from a similar genre sucks (and it does, I will admit).

 

[Nebulous]

I think what Chris was trying to say was to set some time aside where music isn't work; allow yourself to remember how you use to enjoy it and the thrill of finding new bands as a fan, not an engineer/ producer.

Without wanting to belittle some of the great people here, you can see in the equipment section how few of the people who post here actually have a "pro" set up, or even a room in which their monitors are set up properly within it.
You can't get depressed at the state of music when your posts here seem to sound as though you're viewing the forum as an oracle of what is popular.
That's a little far from the mark when there are so few artists posting material which is from a professionally released/ created album. There are so many bedroom musicians flooding the RMM who aren't going anywhere. And it's ok to say that, because I'm not any further than they are.

Melbourne is lacking some high quality tallent you say- this forum is open to the world, so not finding something groundbreaking here isn't a surprise.

 

[GarethSE]

Good music is good music and it doesn't stop you listening to the old good shit just because the majority of new stuff from a similar genre sucks (and it does, I will admit).

Exactly. I may think that all the death metal that comes out nowadays is just pure and utter shite but that doesn't stop me from spinning None So Vile again, does it?

And as for the Australian Scene, some of the shit that's coming from Australian bands is enough to rekindle my faith in modern death metal.
Loads of 'stralian bands making dm that sounds legitimately rotted, decrepit and disgusting, not only in production values but in terms of the compositions and feel of the music. Heard a lot of shit from Australia too, but the DM scene over there more than makes up for the crap.

 

[B36arin]

Music goes in cycles, I'm sure that there will be a reaction to all these note-by-note recorded breakdown based bands that are popular. Music is more than that, and while it may be really cool for the public the first 10 years that it's popular, sooner or later people will react to how boring it actually is.

Like somebody already said, everybody is making music because it's "cool" to make music. You don't automatically get laid for being in a band longer(trust me ). Sooner or later most of these people doing it at home will realize that, and the home studio boom will slow down again. At least I really, really hope so. Times will change, the global economy will sort itself out and the musical landscape will change. Hopefully all of us will live for long enough to encounter lots of different trends and musical ages, some of them will be really cool and some of them will be horrible.

Accessible music is mostly worse than it was 10 years ago. But with the introduction of the internet you can really find some awesome stuff that wasn't possible 10 years ago. Hell, Tesseract released their debut EP today, and they are AWESOME! You have to look at both sides of it. It's made producing music a much harder job though if you want to be able to make a living out of it, that's for sure.

 

[Williamn]

Well im gonna go a bit against the norm in this thread and actual admit I love the state of metal right now, sure there is lots of shit as always.. but still some bands make up for it. (and no, just because I enjoy metalcore does not mean I don't know so called "real" metal, I listen to everything from the more pop bands to the underground DIY scene and stuff thats not metal related) .

But I can see how you may think its all gone to shit if you cant gell with metalcore.

So I think it would be healthy for you to try seeking some bands yourself, spendt a few hours going to sites like last fm and try to find bands in the style you enjoy, im sure there must still be something left you can enjoy.

and tbh as a AE its as already said, your job to make them sound good and then its up to the bands to actual deliver something new and interresting (IMO).

But if all fails, just listen to albums you dig and stick to what you believe is "real".

Good luck, hope you can find some hidden gems in todays music .

 

[Melb_shredder]

I am eternal
Orpheus
Eye of the enemy
Ano domini
Aeon of Horus
Psycroptic
Neo obliviscaris
Belakor

^^^^ encompassing a good array of quality emerging Aussie metal. Come on ermz haha, even you like some of them! Most guys on here probably would
I get what you mean though. No metal bands really taking your breath away etc. Give it time, when has the Aussie metal scene had such potential over the years???

 

[The Unavoidable]

I'm a bit more sad over the fact that almost all of the good band names are taken, which the above list helped proove. (Except Psycroptic, that's a good one)

 

[ratsapprentice]

The Amenta

Ulcerate (Kiwis, but still...)

 

[Ermz]

Actually it's funny, the EoTE album is my favourite metal record of 2010 :Smug:

 

[Morgan C]

Your outlook on music/metal/mixing/state-of-the-industry-and-world is always so depressing Ermz. ><