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Metal's Becoming a Cliche

#82
Basically, any time something considered 'underground' eventually starts to become relatively mainstream and gets exploited by business it becomes 'cliche'. Especially so if it continues to pretend it's still 'underground'.

Metal, grunge, rap, etc...
 
#85
Lots of local bands suck, but local hardcore bands suck louder. It makes it harder to ignore. As is true with any genre of music, only some bands really stick out.

I played a show the other weekend with like 5 other bands :/ I liked one of the other bands (a lot actually) but the rest was as you say, a wall of tone-less noise. I always qualify my band to people in that, we're a metal band for certain, but we always stick out from the crowd. Good songwriting, tone/gear, lots of backup vocals and a high-energy show go a long way. Many bands have none of those things.
 
#86
You just need to wade further now into the shiat in order to find good music.

I remember when my sister told me this new band she heard "invented" the break down... They formed in like 2005, i showed her The Refused, she was like wow.. I find most bands now all have the same nasally whiney singer and than the gutteral vocals without words...

On that note some people hear have turned me on to some good new stuff "Introanut" for example... Thanks, can't remember who that was.

It was funny though, went to Heavy Montreal last year, and i remember this Hardcore Fighting kid who was with us who kept telling me everything I enjoyed was crap... Megadeath, bad, kataklysm good.. I just don't get it at all.. When kataklysm (rarely) comes on in my winamp, i think the non existant CD started skipping..

Side Note:
Best bands in 2 days? Mastodon (music wise) Rob Zombie (Best show)

And ive been listening to them for... iono how long. I had the first zombie Cd when i was 15ish?
 
#87
oniman7 said:
My girlfriend and I went to see a friend of ours in a show earlier today. He used to play bass for a very well known local alternative rock band, but they split up and the singer and one guitarist went one way, while everybody else got a new singer and become a progressive/death metal band.

We showed up at 7, and from 7 until 10:30, I could not have told you when the bands changed if I was outside. The whole night was double bass, walls of distortion, diminished scales, and god awful screaming. Typically I love metal -- depending on when you ask me, my favorite band is Tool, Opeth, Protest the Hero, Dream Theater, etc. I wore my Slipknot shirt to the concert. But the state of metal here is really sad and makes me think. I love those metal bands because they bring something musically that I love. Even at the heaviest, they have a sense of melody. The local bands all seem to imitate that, without actually knowing what they're doing. Most of the bands are just really low drop tuned power chords, and 80% of each song is one long breakdown. I've grown to dread breakdowns just because of their overuse lately.

I realized earlier today that whenever I do a show, I go out fully expecting to come across at least one terrible metal band. I'm surprised now when I look at a line up and it's not more than 50% hardcore bands. It just feels like almost everybody who plays an instrument anymore just decides to form a cookie cutter hardcore band. It's become a cliche. They're becoming the talentless wall of noise that people have been calling them for years, and taking over local music so much that I haven't been to once local show that hasn't been filled with them.

I'm new to the local music scene, and my band plays rock and metal, but I really need a break from all the hardcore stuff. Most local shows I go, I end up sitting outside half the night because I can't stand the bands inside. Guess I just needed to rant about that.
Click to expand...

Ah, grasshopper... Awareness is the first step to growth. You have taken that first step.

Welcome to musical maturity. :smug:
 
#88
Many will probably be surprised to hear this but metal is actually becoming somewhat of a cliche even in India. A majority of new bands seem to be inclined to play metal. Sadly, the results on many occasions aren't inspiring; not because the new metal bands here are bad per se, but they seem to use the limited stylistic approaches used by seminal metal bands, which results in a certain degree of repetitiveness in the music of these bands here.

That's just my 0.02, though.
 
#90
Now I feel bad about playing(or trying to) play prog rock. I've always thought something, in modern metal you're either tuned obnoxiously low playing the circle of fifths or you're playing something ridiculously complicated just to make it complicated("It's so prog", and "So metal, bro" fit here). I've never been a metal "fan", but I do enjoy bands like Born of Osiris, Tool, and Dream Theater. Why? Because they actually have inspiration, which as stated many times here, most metal bands lack.

I started my musical life as a trombonist, and got into bass about the same time. I eventually delved totally into bass, but playing/listening to classical music/opera/ballets/musicals showed me that music should tell a story. I think this is something most metal/prog/rock bands today don't seem to understand. Most metal I hear is just pretentious people playing 7 and 8 string guitars through some of the stupidest rigs on the planet just for the sake of "being metal"
 
#94
Metal:

l.jpg


There is a lot of amateur metal out there and it can definitely sound awful. It's as bad as any other genre. Some metal is the finest music I know of (Meshuggah, Tool, Opeth, Isis).
 
#97
Bad hardcore shows are terrible.

But then I went down the street, and heard a terrible, cliched indie rock band.

Then as I was walking away, I heard terrible cliched rap coming from a car window. And playing on the street was a cliched acoustic duo with a case open, singing about nonsense with flowery language and major chords.

Let's be serious, folks; there are cliches in every generation, in every genre of music and life. Which is why I'm starting a metal band that plays Barry White cover songs with accordion and two basses, a saxophone and no guitars. We'll wear leopard-print zoot suits and instead of a screamer and a singer, we'll have a barbershop quartet doing all vocals.
 
#98
Essen said:
The good thing about terrible metal bands is that people tend to notice when someone's actually doing it right. My local scene consists of punk-rock and black metal. We barely have to go "prog" to get noticed, which is nice;)
Click to expand...

Oh dear. You must NEVER do anything "prog" in a blackmetal band or everyone will accuse you of trying to be Pink Floyd!

Sorry Enslaved! It wasn't me!
 
#99
Etchbass said:
God, I hate local hardcore/pop/punk bands. They're all the same *****y band around here, and that's almost all we've got here in Buffalo, too. The worst part is, kids seem to love that garbage!

I've figured out their recipe if you would like to start one yourself:

1. get the biggest most obnoxious amp you can find
2. play power chord circle of fifths, with everything dimed on said amp
3. make sure drummer can play blast beats
4. singer is only allowed to sing major scale notes
(ex: Sooooool Faaaaa Soooool! mi re do, mi re do, meeeee reeeeee doooooo! Sooool faaaa soooool! Faaaa mii ffaaaaa miiiii reeeeee, Dooooooo!)
6. let drummer sing backup vocals, but only fifths and octaves
7. bass player stays solely on root, 5th and octave, occasionally throwing a 7th in during a fill.

Done. Now your a famous hardcore band making thousands of dollars. Congratulations.

It's really hard sometimes being one of the only indie rock bands around here when everyone seems to want to listen to the worst music ever.

My general rule of thumb is this:
If the music you are listening to requires a lifestyle change, or requires you to act a certain way and hang out with a certain group of people, then the music probably isn't very good.
Click to expand...

no no, thats far too technical. :D
 

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