lolz @aggroculture , we had the same immediate reaction...
lolz @aggroculture , we had the same immediate reaction...
The main issue i have with Death Metal (and Black Metal) are the lyrics, i like the music (most of the time) but i dislike most of the lyrics, oddly i'm a horror movie fan, but i can't connect to the lyrics like i do with NIN, Joy Division, Radiohead, Pink Floyd, etc...
Death Metal has some great riffs and interesting melodies, but the main concept has become tired and a parody of itself (just like black metal).
Funny last night i was at the record store looking at the music DVD's and a Mayhem DVD showed up ("Dawn of the black hearts") and i thought: "God, these guys sure are beting the dead horse with the infamous "Dead" suicide, i bet if he didn't do it they wouldn't be as famous" and then kept looking my New Order DVD...
I do respect "Mayhem" or bands like "Cannibal Corpse" and "Death" (live in L.A. is a good album), but i do think those bands don't have much to say in the lyrics department and their clones have become an intrascendent part in Rock history...
I've never really been into death metal, but I just remembered when I was a 10 year old kid in the early 90s, before I got into music, one of my friends was raised in a devout baptist family, and was REALLY into Christian death metal bands. One of them was called Mortification, I think. I remember he showed me a couple of their songs one day, I wasn't really into it. Thinking about it now though, that idea of religious death metal is an interesting kind of juxtaposition, imo. I'm a Catholic myself, but am not familiar with or interested in much religious music outside of chanting, generally though I consider myself open to all music. I love metal with screaming, stuff like Dillinger, Rolo Tomassi, Fantomas, Norma Jean, etc., but have never been able to really get into death metal or black metal. Like some of the others have stated, it all sounds the same to me and I can't get past the guttural, garbage-disposal vocals.
Anyway, you said death metal is almost designed to be off-putting in ways, and I agree. On the same hand, I would (likely naively) assume religious death metal (whether it be christian, muslim, jewish, etc.) would be kind of a niche market, maybe more for those who like the sound but aren't so much into lyrics and artwork of bands like Deicide or Cannibal Corpse. Is this the case within the general death metal community, or do you find that people are generally more open-minded toward all kinds of bands in the genre? I ask cause it just seems like a really interesting fan base.
Opeth have come as close as I've ever wanted to get to death metal. The songs that lean that way on the Ghost Reveries album really work for me because Mikael switches between clean singing and growling. Thank goodness he has a sense of humor about the people who go to their shows who don't respond too well to their more mellow material. I think anyone else would just consider calling it quits. I'm glad he's moved away from the more abrasive style of singing because he has a great voice.
Most metal subgenres are just...kind of shlocky to me. I used to have Cradle Of Filth's discography up to 2003, when I was in college. I woke up one morning and just...basically realized I'd outgrown the stuff, it suddenly just seemed so damned silly to me. I'd still say there are some damn great songs in there, but I just no longer have the urge to listen to vox comparable to a tomcat getting its nuts stuck in one of those frighteningly fast sets of doors on the Death Star.
I could name maybe ten metal bands - encompassing every genre thereof - I still actively listen to; most of the original big boys (minus Slayer, who I could never get into), Fear Factory, Type O, and White Zombie. Hard-pressed to come up with anybody else. Those guys just have, or had, something special.
I get being put off by growled/screamed vocals, but I just kind of view it like any other vocal technique: If the vocalist has range it doesn't get boring to me. As far as lyrics go, I would love to have all of the songs I love have relatable lyrics, but they don't. As much as I enjoy listening to Method Man every now and then, I don't find his stories of selling drugs and stabbing people with screwdrivers to be something on which I can reflect.
sorry for double post
@Shadaloo , Type O is probably the ONLY "metal" band i listen to on a regular basis these days.
@onthewall2983 , Kittie is the closest i have ever come to getting into death metal.
There's a controversial musical opinion. Kittie is fucking awesome.
I thought they were more nu-metal.
I always liked Drain STH over Kittie ...wait! how did we got into this?
RE: Death Metal
Every holiday, when my family gets together for a big meal, I say, "ok, time for some nice, calming music," and then I put on Cannibal Corpse for about 30 seconds. Then I play some classical music. Always gets a laugh.
I'm a metal fan and I enjoy a vast array of metal music. I mainly just turn myself off when it edges on black or death metal. Death metal, my original post and what generated conversation, is my major no no. I largely dislike the lack of melody. I'm not dissing the skills or stylings of their work but I can't find anything that grabs me with a vocal hook or bridge chorus. I can't very well sing a humble line from Hammer Smashed Face to myself walking into work. The memory and melody simply isn't there for me. I hate to be a typical death metal hater pleb but the vocals are largely what turn me off. I legitimately want to HEAR what the vocalist is saying. With the same gutteral growl vocals I won't be shy in saying I can't understand half of it over the big bad man beating on his trash can lid sounding snare drum the entire song. There are very few breakdowns or discernible melodies in which I can get into.
For a good laugh in death metal, Anal Cunt are alright because they clearly are aiming for a joke. Most of the clones of the founders of the genre have turned me off to the genre. The vocals are a huge part but a lot are copy and paste. Shit like Six Feet Under are awesome musically in the genre but then when I hear Barnes vocals I immediately get put off and realize why I dislike death metal.
For extreme metal I find myself always leaning to black. I actually enjoy a small handful of black metal bands (Behemoth on occasions, Gojira, etc.) as there's enough variety and actually discernible vocals to go along with the dark imagery.
I don't know why but I laughed at this sentence for nearly 5 minutes.
Lack of melody, yes.
yeah, kittie are definitely not death metal, or really even close. they came up in the nu metal era and were somewhat outside of that niche but slightly related to it.
also, yes, their first album is something i still enjoy.
and sometimes my wife yells "NOOOOOOOOOOO" like in the song "charlotte" and then we both crack up.
i wasn't saying that kittie was death metal. i was saying that the very few elements of death metal (some of the vocals) that they incorporate into their sound are as close as i get to death metal.
in other words, i can't hang with death metal at all.
Okay, back to controversial opinions.
Why does Ween have this insane following going on? Ween is awful!
edit: @eversonpoe , did you not like Oracle? I like Spit and Oracle.
Last edited by elevenism; 03-12-2016 at 11:22 AM.
it's fine, i just don't connect with it emotionally like i do with Spit.
the only Ween songs i like are the couple i've heard in movies & shows:
japanese cowboy, from the Morvern Callar soundtrack (which also got me into Can, Boards of Canada, and Lee "Scratch" Perry)
loop de loop, from spongebob squarepants (totally gonna use that to teach my kid to tie their shoes some day haha)
The King of Limbs is fucking awesome.
i've heard a lot of people say that and i just don't get it. to me it's uninspired, boring, and too short to feel like a full album anyway. it took me a while to warm up to In Rainbows after how much i fell in love with Hail To The Thief, but that just never happened with TKoL.
what is it about it that grabs you so?
I am repeating myself, probably actually for the hundredth time, but the From The Basement version of The King Of Limbs SLAYS the studio version. I don't care for the studio version. But the From The Basement version? It fucking kicks ass.
Back in the day, based on the cover of Chocolate and Cheese and without hearing a single note, I decided Ween were awful, and avoided them.
Then maybe a decade later I fell in love with two songs of theirs: "Falling Out" and "Baby Bitch." Both great songs with a lot of heavy emotion and sincerity in them, in addition to a sour sense of humor. I find their albums hit and miss, but mere jokesters they ain't. Primus never wrote anything as moving.
And talking of weirdo 90s alt.rock...I'm just about ready for a Mr Bungle reunion, how about that, Patton and chums?
My favorite Ween album is The Mollusk. They are definitely hit and miss, but that's because they fuck around a lot for fun. A lot of their music can be very indigestible. The closest group I can think of like Ween is Devo in their early days, before they even released their first album. These are two of my favorite Ween track
Ween is awesome, But i get why some people might not like them
The first and last song I heard by Ween was that godawful Pushin Daisies crap on MTV and the radio back in the early 90's. How that shit ever made it onto the airwaves is beyond comprehension.
it's not. i'm with krazy.
"everything she wants" by wham! is one of the best pop songs ... scratch that, one of the BEST SONGS ever. the '97 remix is also amazing.
What does everyone think of Paul McCartney's New Wave material? I just don't know....
I've never been too huge a fan of the Ween brothers and all their various projects, but some of my very best friends are so I've nonetheless heard countless albums of theirs over the last 20-something years of hanging out and there really is quite a lot of great stuff there. They actually have one of the most diverse catalogues of music I've heard from such a simple, straightforward band. I don't know a lot of the titles or names of their projects but if you don't like one sample of their work just pick another at random and I'm reasonably certain you'll eventually find something that surprises you and strikes your fancy.
There is FAR more to their career than just that one song about daisies.