Metal and Hard Rock discussion thread

[bennyboy]

I don't know what you mean by "one's a serious artist", arguably I could say Kurt Cobain was bad because he was an average guitar player, songs were simplistic and lyrics sometimes didn't make sense

Metal is a huge rock subgenre and it's essentially heavier rock with a particular specific sound. It's hard to explain

Hendrix and Bach had a baby, but it was a little OCD and liked pulling the wings off of bats.

/done

[Thumpalumpacus]

https://soundcloud.com/thumpalumpacus/going-tharn

Interesting stuff.  I'm hearing some of the same influences you talked about for GNR, and so many others.  I definitely hear a strong Seattle groove in there-- maybe more in the way you mixed so that your guitars left plenty of room for the bass-- something Soundgarden does so well.  I also feel hints of Hendrix and Sabbath in there-- amiwrong?

Thanks for the kind words there, bud. I had been listening to a hell of a lot Living Colour at the time -- they're a band I still love to this day, what they did with metal in cross-pollinating it was great, and they don't get enough credit for that. But the vibe I was going for was just a three-piece band showing up and ripping.The artists you've mentioned were all certainly influences on my playing and writing, but not so much on that song, at least not consciously.

But yeah, I'm big on sonic space inside a song, giving each instrument room to breathe. That comes from my longtime love of power trios -- Jimi, Cream, the Who, Rush -- they all took the trio format in different directions, but they all had that leanness of sound, except once Rush discovered keyboards.

I'm not very well versed in Metal, but since you are sharing I want to, too.  This is me trying to be intense-- mainly because I can't sing worth shit.  You are waaayyyyy better than me, obviously.  In my defense, I know that the mixing is for shit, but I lost the original project almost right after I uploaded this:

https://soundcloud.com/benjamin1973/devil-music

I dig that Dead Kennedys sort of groove you get going in places. I wish I could hear the drums better, because I can tell there are some blasts there that would add a lot to the song. It's good stuff.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Grunge is basically a label for any rebellious music that came out of the Seattle scene - Nirvana is essentially punk influenced along with some rock and roll classics and Kurt Cobain confirmed that - Pearl Jam is harder to define and Alice in Chains is definitely metal, labeling them just as grunge is demeaning.

AiC put on the most amazing concert I've ever seen, in April of 93 -- the energy was great, great songs, and they were nailing the harmonies which made them so unique.

And as a bonus, Masters of Reality with Ginger Baker on drums opened.



There's a lo-fi video of the entire concert on Youtube.

[Exian]

@Parkers Tan- I was totally going to say Living Colour, but there's always that possibility of offending someone, whether you're right or wrong. Sort of along the lines of "Oh, cool. That sounds like *insert song*", so I decided not to. Lol

A bit off topic, but- Its always a little heartbreaking to write a song that you're totally convinced is an original sound, only to have the first person to hear it exactly nail what it sounds like. On the other hand, it nice to have your ass saved, so you can change it a little bit.

Edit for clarification: I wasn't saying your song sounded like any particular song, that was just a separate rant. I did note the Living Colour influence though.

[Thumpalumpacus]

I don't mind showing my influences, and I enjoy being around people knowledgeable enough to spot them. I knew when I wrote that song that it was pretty unoriginal, and it didn't bother me at all, because I wanted to do my take on riff-rock, which is not the most original subgenre. I still get a kick out of listening to that one, mainly because the way we got the crescendo at the end to build so smoothly -- that, and the fact that both guitar solos were one take with no punch-ins, and completely improvised except for the harmonized line at the beginning.

Anyway, the LC reference was in the guitar's tone, and in the oddball Phrygian-dominant lines after the little breakdown.

[Thumpalumpacus]

And since we're on the topic of Living Colour:





I can hear their influences there -- Bad Brains, mainly.

[Faith No More]

Favorite G n' R tune. No radio play for this one:

One of my favs, too.

[bennyboy]

I dig that Dead Kennedys sort of groove you get going in places.  I wish I could hear the drums better, because I can tell there are some blasts there that would add a lot to the song.  It's good stuff.

Thanks much.  I've tried a couple other times to do metal, and I could never recapture that sound properly again.  I would have liked to remix it and extend it to a proper 3:00 or 4:00 song, but *sigh*

[Dystopia]

Today I saw a Beatles tribute band, it was an amazing concert to end the afternoon, and they looked really similar, specially ringo

[Thumpalumpacus]

I'm curious how you are defining "metal."  I see it as rooted in certain song structures, certain musical philosophies, certain lyric themes, etc.  Alice in chains has some vaguely metal-sounding stuff, but I don't see that overall they have the attitudes or sound that I would call metal.

This is really a great question, and one that has no definitive answer.

Myself, I think of metal as tending to minor tonalities; heavy, straightforward beats which might be subdivided finely but with little syncopation; an emphasis on instrumental technique that might become exaggerated; lyrical themes that prefer the extremes of partying or doom, but avoid the middle ground between the two extremes; guitar tones based on humbucker pickups pushing massively overdriven amps; and an aggressive approach to everything musical.

Out of the grunge movement in particular, I think of both AiC and Soundgarden as being, if not purely metal (because they aren't), the closest to metal.

If I were to refine the essence of metal, I'd have Sabbath, Metallica, and Van Halen all in the mix, although I confess having no idea about the proportions -- and I suspect those will vary by opinions and taste anyway.