• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

What's the best age for metal?

#22
I you're an already established player, the ideal situation would be dying of old age while performing live on stage (no pun intended). But, if you want to start "making it" from scratch being too old, you'll be the guy in the scene everyone calls "grandpa". I personally would not like to be that guy. Plus, a whole metal band with old players starting from scratch could be viewed as "gimmicky". Although, it would be totally fine if it's a cover/tribute band.
 
#23
Ronbassman said:
...a whole metal band with old players starting from scratch could be viewed as "gimmicky". Although, it would be totally fine if it's a cover/tribute band.
Click to expand...

Unless they rox so hard they become awesome.

There is also the possibility of product endorsement.

Use exlax and be a regular rwaker. That would be awesome2.
 
#24
Age range in my band is early 40's to mid 30's. It's metal with a healthy dose of 70's rock. We managed to sign a distribution/licensing deal last year. In our band pics we might look like four bozos who just got off work (which we did haha) but we know how to rock.
 
#27
You know you are getting old when you start to lose your touch, and your music isnt quite metal anymore.
That doesnt mean that you should stop playing metal, it just means that you should take more time to rethink things, and come back to it later when you have more energy. Almost every band goes through a crappy period later in their careers and they almost always bounce back. Metallica had St.Anger, then came back with Death Magnetic. They probably thought they were getting too old to play metal, but then they took some time to figure things out then came back strong.
I guess what I am saying is that you might think you are too old, but really you are just psyching your self out. You are never too old for metal!
 
#29
SteveHeissner said:
How old is James Hetfield?
Click to expand...

But he's no longer a metal rwaker.

These days he's just some wealthy, nancyboy, prima donna, who needs a life coach just so he can communicate vicariously with someone he's know for more than 30 years.

The former James, the rwaker who once existed on baloney on hand, would just beat Lars' candyass and they would move on to the next awesome thing.

Instead James pays some non metallic putz 100K a year just to talk to Lars because he's too overwrought by emotion to do it himself.

How can you rwak if you can't talk to an old friend without using some feel good new age dick to do your talking for you?
 
#31
karl_em_all said:
Aw man, he's the front man of probably the biggest band in the world. If you had the amount of worldwide fame that he has you'd probably be crazy by now. I know I would be.
Click to expand...

Sorry dude, I'd just rwak harder and be more and more awesome every day to add to my already huge awesomeness.

Oh, and I'd still just beat Lars' butt before I'd pay some non roxing dork fat stacks to talk to him for me.
 
#33
Seriously though, why would someone work so hard to gain that kind of recognition, then act like it was eating their soul?

It's not like they didn't know the price of fame and fortune. If they are not willing to pay that price why sacrifice so much on the gamble it can be personally achieved?
 
#37
The best age for metal is when you have existed longer than eternity, so ancient that you remember the stars being born, the Earth coalescing slowly from disparate dust floating in the void in orbit of an infant Sun, and having watched the first creatures crawl up from the murky abyss of the primordial seas to slowly evolve and claim mastery over the land, so that you may be fully able to conjure up achetypic riffage which pounds the skull and shakes the heart while conjuring up the unfathomable fear and wonder of an immortal being which has existed since long before the Beginning and will endure long after the End.
 
#38
fhm555 said:
Once you begin to resemble a bowling ball on color matching poles in your animal print unitard, it's time to think seriously about pulling a Bill Ward. Ditch your Gene Simmons sig model and multiple cab stack, pick up a Fender P and a Peavey combo along with some jeans, a casual coat with leather on the elbows, and a matching pork pie hat, and begin anew in Americana or blues.

Myself and the rest of the world will thank you.
Click to expand...

I did just that - or something like it - and failed to make myself happy. I'm 54, and I'm looking to do new, heavier music (more metal-influenced than metal). At home, I listen to Tool, Chevelle, Rammstein, Volbeat, Lacuna Coil, Sisters of Mercy - alt-metal, alt-progressive, industrial, etc.

I thought I'd compromise and played in a post-punk indy band for a year, and the whole "roots-rock, oooh - vintage sound! Let's back off the heaviness, keep it mellow and just rock out during the dynamic peaks" thing wasn't for me.

When I left the band, I saw there were absolutely no options except to play music I'm not interested in. Anyone my age wants to play jazz and blues - if they are rockers, they want to play classic rock, or do a tribute to some fave band from the 70's or 80's. Whereas I am much more inspired by the grunge era and beyond.

Now, I understand. A bowling ball on color matching poles is a horrible thing. I would cringe at the sight of a stage full of pudgy middle-aged men romping around in leotards. But I don't look like that, and I stay very fit for that reason. Mind you, I'm still not getting into a leotard.

I wish there was a way to play heavy music - the music I like - and be involved in something new. I haven't found anything.

Oops. Sorry, my reply to the original question was: "If you can find people to do it with, and you're comfortable with it - enjoy! PLEASE!"
 
#40
ShredderMaximus said:
The only thing important to metal is passion for the music. If you still have that, who gives a f*** about your age. Metal has never been about giving a single f*** about others opinions anyways.
Click to expand...

While that is most certainly the image most metal fanatics cultivate and most folks who have a casual association with the genre buy into hook, line, and sinker, what I see when looking at your typical metalhead is something wholly different.

Metalheads are a strange juxtaposition of wanna be nihilist and dreadfully insecure individual who requires constant attention and believes the best way to get it is to act like they are members of some outcast, ancient warrior caste whose universally misunderstood mission is to save mankind from themselves. They present themselves to the world as badasses ready to fight at the drop of a hat, but for the most part couldn't punch their way out of a wet paper bag. Granted, there are exceptions to this and some metalheads are in fact decent fighters, but even the badest of the bad among them would be light work for your average celtic punk bass playing southie lass.

Metalheads are by and large very sensitive individuals who work way too hard proving just how little of a s&!t they give about societal norms while working like sled dogs to be creative and find an individual voice in what has to be one of the narrowest genres in music since the invention of electricity.

Proof of my contention can be found in the fact that in spite of the razor thin breadth of the metal genre as a whole, it's acolytes never tire of breaking it down in to even thinner sub genres to avoid ever having to utter the phrase "We sound a little like (insert established metal band name here)." ;)
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back