Metal's Becoming a Cliche

[curbowkid]

Most metal bands are metal just for the sake of being metal. There's no musicality involved, just tune as low as possible and play really fast. Makes me sick when people put these crappy bands in the same genre as bands like Black Sabbath.

Black sabbath was in drop tuning. And actually most bands now don't down tune, but they use extended range instruments, 7-8 string guitars

 

[oniman7]

Black sabbath was in drop tuning. And actually most bands now don't down tune, but they use extended range instruments, 7-8 string guitars

He tuned it to C# so he could play easier after his accident. A musical choice, yes, but Open Drop A power chords are not always the answer.

My band tunes to Drop C, and I'm experimenting with using my 5 string tuned a whole step down to keep up. It's a musical choice like anything else. There are great non metal bands that tune down low, great metal bands that use E standard (Opeth anyone?), and bad of everything everywhere

 

[brummiejon]

LOL..... Metal is becoming a cliche.... That is so funny..... It's been a cliche from day one.... It's all in spinal tap.... How old is that movie?
I come from Birmingham, seen it all from Black Sabbath and Judas Priest to Napalm Death.... The fans of metal have always taken the music more seriously than the bands themselves.... Take a leaf out of Bruce Dickinsons book and realise that metal IS cliche.......
I'll hide now..... LOL

 

[Lurker79]

Metal shows are a sausage fest. I was at a Bassnectar show and this smokin' lil piece saw me smoking and came over to ask for a puff. After she hit it I said, "I'm never gonna wash this butt again!" She smiled, winked, and disappeared into the crowd. Go to the right concert. Every gogo is a future wife.

 

[niels125]

Man, the op described my local Music scene pretty darn well.
I'm into a lot of that progressive stuff (all the bands listed in the op plus between the buried and me, the human abstract, porcupine tree, etc). The problem is all of the other teenage musicians in my area who play 'metal' are into all that cliche metalcore crud (think 'a day to remember').
I like progressive metal because not only is it heavy, but it's musical and technically challenging to perform. Part of why I study theory as extensively as I do (passed theory 3 with an A- last year as a sophomore) is so that I can get a better handle on all of the complexities of melody and harmony, etc.
But sadly, all of the local 'talent' will only play power chords, will only play in dropped tunings (to quote my ex guitarist 'you can't play metal in a standard tuning') and love those breakdowns where everyone plays their lowest open string in unison in an un-syncopated rhythm.
Sorry for the mini-rant/ derail.
But OP, your not the only one frustrated by this. I feel ya man.

Dillinger escape plan plays in standard tuning, and they are modern and heavy as hell

Ha I just recently went to a Mastodon concert and Dillinger Escape Plan was there....gotta say, they fit the description you provided in the beginning (double bass, diminished scales, walls of distortion, etc.). Recently ive been getting into Ghost Brigade myself.

might sound like this at first listen, but the members of DEP are actually really talented musicians
it's just that alot of talentless "core" bands tried to imitate their sound

 

[D.M.N.]

About the only modern metal I'll listen to is Stoner metal/rock, because it isn't all about the speed and what not. Sleep, the first Witch Album, Kyuss, The Atomic Bitchwax, etc. It seems to take its cues more from the early metal bands such as Black Sabbath (who I love), and though there is definitely a wall of sound, it's more defined, not just noise being blasted at you. Plus, the vocalist isn't just demon screaming/growling the whole time.

As far as the local scene, I know all too well the issues that arise with these generic "metal" bands. I'm in a rock band with a lot of influence from ORIGINAL heavy metal (Zep, Deep Purple, Mountain, that stuff), and we often get put on bills with these metal bands, because I guess the venue people figure "rock, metal, same difference" and then we have to deal with listening to them. I mean, a lot of the guys in these bands are super cool, nice dudes, it's just the music.......I honestly cannot tell one song from another. No melodies, no dynamics, just....DISTORTED NOISE AND KICK DRUM WITH SCREAMING.
On a side note, at one show after one of these generic metal bands played, the "singer" signed off by saying "Go home, spend time with your family, love them. Jesus bless you." Caught me really off guard given the music they'd just played......

 

[tjnkoo]

I'm 17, so I I'm right with all the death-core, crap-core (typo intended), etc lovers. I myself never understood any of if. I'm a huge Black Sabbath fan, I love the old 70's metal, and I like some of the modern stoner rock type things out now. Really I think ever since the early 80's metal has gone down hill into this finally deteriorated genre we know as 'metal'. I have many friends in local metal bands (of the anything-core type) and every single one of them loves Metallica. I won't hate on them because I know a bunch if people here love them, but let's just say I was never a fan, haha.

We have a venue for local bands around where I live, and each time I have the misfortune to go there (when I'm not playing there with my band, which is NOT metal by any means), I'm reminded of the pathetic scene of metal these people have created. In the whole night there might be one band with an actual singer? Otherwise its just some dude up there growling.

Keep in mind this all coming from the only kid in my generation I've met who sits around listening to Yes Peter Gabriel era Genesis, King Crimson, Camel, Gentle Giant, Jethro Tull etc. Needless to say, I've yet to find any drummers/guitarists/vocalists/keys with the same interests, haha. All anyone wants to play around here is...METAL.

 

[Russell L]

I'm 17, so I I'm right with all the death-core, crap-core (typo intended), etc lovers. I myself never understood any of if. I'm a huge Black Sabbath fan, I love the old 70's metal, and I like some of the modern stoner rock type things out now. Really I think ever since the early 80's metal has gone down hill into this finally deteriorated genre we know as 'metal'. I have many friends in local metal bands (of the anything-core type) and every single one of them loves Metallica. I won't hate on them because I know a bunch if people here love them, but let's just say I was never a fan, haha.

We have a venue for local bands around where I live, and each time I have the misfortune to go there (when I'm not playing there with my band, which is NOT metal by any means), I'm reminded of the pathetic scene of metal these people have created. In the whole night there might be one band with an actual singer? Otherwise its just some dude up there growling.

Keep in mind this all coming from the only kid in my generation I've met who sits around listening to Yes Peter Gabriel era Genesis, King Crimson, Camel, Gentle Giant, Jethro Tull etc. Needless to say, I've yet to find any drummers/guitarists/vocalists/keys with the same interests, haha. All anyone wants to play around here is...METAL.

My hat is off to you, pal, for being so young and digging the old stuff. I'm 62 and just can't get into a lot of modern music. I still say the old stuff is the real stuff.

 

[tjnkoo]

Haha, thank you! I was raised on Yes, and I've pretty much based my taste in music off that as I've gonna older.

There's a couple good prog bands now though that follow in that fashion, you just have to really dig for em. One good one is a band called Ritual (from Sweden), kinda reminds me of Ian Anderson backed by Gentle Giant. And then another more popular (which is just a crazy group) is The Mars Volta.

On the topic of this thread though, with the modern music it seems the more metal(lica) influenced a group is, the worse the quality musically, and more generic sounding the band is. I'd rather listen to Twisted Sister than about 90% of the 'metal' out now. Metal's been pretty cliched since the 80's. Nowadays its just not a very desirable genre at all IMO.

Generally for me, the only good metal groups are those that break the cliche, such as Tool, Dream Theater, Bigelf, etc.

 

[GBBSbassist]

By far, the worst part about metal these days, is how the younger fan base has decided that there needs to be about 500 sub-genres for the word metal.

 

[tjnkoo]

I couldn't agree more, especially since most of it sounds exactly the same.

 

[HugheJapackage]

I love iron maiden and I love metal-core(I'm 20 btw). You don't have to like it but you shouldn't bash it. A lot of musicianship goes into modern metal and just because you don't understand doesn't mean it's no good. I imagine your parents hated sabbath...

 

[Neverender]

Haha, metal is bar none my favorite genre of music. It has so much to offer in terms of musicality, technicality, and melodies. With that said, the # of bands that display those qualities is growing smaller and smaller in # every year. Its become so much of a fad and its really sad. To many talentless wash ups, starting songs with a breakdown and not letting up until the 'song' is done. Still a lot of good bands out there, so all the more respective for those whom do the genre justice!

So glad part of my bands goal musically is to NEVER right a single breakdown. Ever. And we sound almost nothing like US metal. We are more akin to a lot of European metal, if you are a fan of Kalmah, you might want to hit up one of our shows, its the closest you will get to hearing them live haha

 

[D.M.N.]

Keep in mind this all coming from the only kid in my generation I've met who sits around listening to Yes Peter Gabriel era Genesis, King Crimson, Camel, Gentle Giant, Jethro Tull etc. Needless to say, I've yet to find any drummers/guitarists/vocalists/keys with the same interests, haha. All anyone wants to play around here is...METAL.

Heh. I was the poster right above this, and I'm 19. There are people from our generation who know what good music is, we're just few and far between it seems. But we are out there......

 

[Johnny Mac]

And actually most bands now don't down tune, but they use extended range instruments, 7-8 string guitars

No, they still drop-tune the extended range instruments.

 

[tjnkoo]

At D.N.M., yeah I'll agree there are some, just next to none if us, haha.

 

[sangsaratrip]

There are some really good death metal bands out there. It's just mainly the vocal style. It gets really annoying and stupid sounding. We get it, you're all into satan and you kill people. You're scary and more brutal, blah, blah.

I saw a decent show last night. Dying Fetus and Six Feet Under. Revocation opened. Revocation is what I would call a poser band. They sound like a cheesy mix of 80s metal and slayer riffs. They have a couple songs that sound kind of cool, but they lose all credibility by trying to project this 80's thrash image. It's stupid. The singer/guitarist introduced this one song, " blah blah this next song is like your in a demon world and you meet this demon chic and you talk about which Deicide album is your favorite and she gives you a handjob and it's ****ing badass, blah blah." Seriously, wow that's bad ass. That's lame and dumb.

Dying Fetus killed it. They were spot on. Sean Beasley's tone sounded pretty killer, he was playing through an Ampeg 810 and SVT4 with a LTD B-1004. Six Feet Under was alright. I'm not a huge fan, but they put on a decent show. I don't like that weird squeal that Chris Barnes does. Jeff Hughell, ex-Brain Drill was up on stage. He had that badass custom Warwick bass, but it sounded like mush. It was muddy. I don't know what he was playing through but it was just mud. He had his short solo for hammer smashed face, sounded like mush.

I'm getting off subject with reviewing this concert, but yea, metal is very cliche. Anyone that labels their band death metal or black metal probably sounds like garbage and writes music with lots of part writing errors. Except for Suffocation, those guys know how to write music.

 

[powmetalbassist]

I'm not a big fan of the guttural screaming stuff either (except for Burzum and Death, their vocals are just unreal). In fact, one of the things I love about Iron Maiden is Bruce Dickinson's absolutely unreal-awesome voice.

Damn straight. Around here all we get is Death-Core crap. It's sooooo bad. The few bands around here trying to do something a little different (Check out Battlesoul - Celtic Thrash band) but these bands are few and far between.