Metal Music Discussion

[Megalith]

To each his own. I don't get why people enjoy techno or whatever it is they air on TV these days. I don't like it, nor do I comprehend why people like it, but do you see me bashing their tastes?

[Ton]

but do you see me bashing their tastes?

Yes, you bashed me for liking Antarctic folk music

[Trentdaddy]

Not sure if this has been posted, but has anybody here heard of Megadriver? They are a Brazillian band that remixes retro game music (mostly Genesis/Megadrive). http://www.megadriver.com.br

Also, there is www.metalmetroid.com

Sorry for only posting about game music, but that is the only music there is.

(B4 you get mad, I am NOT bashing any other music, just don't care for it)

[Soeru]

I don't read newspapers or tabloids. I have heard a few of that "noise" and it's basically all the same screaming/yelling. So don't go the "media ruins it" or the "you shouldn't bash unless you try/heard it" way. I would just like to know why people like this music so much.

Your comment about devil worshiping tying in with heavy metal is a clear sign that you don't know crap about this kind of music. This idea was fed to you either by the media or someone else(who "learned" this from the media, or by word of mouth, but it all boils down to a tabloid or a news broadcast someone saw and thought "Holy fuck! Rock is evil.").

It's a shame how unperceptive the human mind can be, if someone can't understand something the first time around, he condemns it and won't even give it a second look. I'm sure if you listened to some (good) metal more than once with an open mind, you would most certainly find something you like in it. Seriously, if you honestly attempt to listen to some good metal a few times you'll definately become a fan yourself(some bands will get you hooked instantly, some others grow on you over time). If you have even the slightest interest then feel free to ask for some reccomendations. You'll probably want to check out something like Iron Maiden at first.

A primary example is my brother... he's all into grunge and old rock and shit, never cared much for any form of metal(he listened to Metallica, Pantera, and even some Sepultura back in his day, but he never was a metalhead). Then one day he happened to listen to some Amon Amarth, Manowar, Iron Maiden and Bathory that I snuck into his iPod. The next day he listened to it by accident and was like "Dude, omg Bathory rulz".

Suffocation and Deicide were some of the first death metal bands I was exposed to. At first I thought it was garbage, so I stuck only to melodic stuff and power/80's metal and some pop-punk-crap and I alternative that I listened back in the day. Then I found one band of the genre that I really liked, and slowly but surely I got into heavier bands. Who would've thought that Suffocation is one of my favorite bands now, when less than two years ago I thought it was pure meaningless shit?

Metal - extreme metal in particular - grows on you over time. You don't just put in a tape or hear a song on the radio and sing along "la-la-la, that's a sweet little tune!", because real musicians take it beyond that. Most people don't even care for the message at first, the instrumentality is what usually hooks people at first. This is especially true for bands whose lyrics are nearly incomprehensible.

For the record, what bands that play this "noise" have you listened to?

Edit: Why do I like this kind of music? Well, my answer to that is "Why not?". I can name a million things I like about it, but at this point I'm not nitpicky with most bands, I'll enjoy anything if it's pure undiluted musicmanship, as long as it's not too blatantly ripped off material from another band. With this mindset, I can enjoy almost any kind of pure music, meaning music without a scent of commeercialism or trendyness, just honest music from the writer's soul. I'm a bit more attracted to metal because I feel the music more intensely than anything else, since real metal bands 99% don't give a fuck about appealing to large groups of listeners, they just write and play whatever they're happy with. This is not exclusive to metal bands, any real musician shouldn't care about making money off of his or her art.

[Lag]

Soeru dominates.

[Soeru]

Soeru dominates.

We must Dominaaaaate! Speaking of which, does anyone like that Morbid Angel album(Domination)? For some reason I don't like it nearly as much as the others. I think even their last one "Heretic" was slightly better than Domination. The slowness doesn't bother me really, hell I love their "Gateways to Annhialation" album which is sluggish for the most part. I just don't think the riffs on "Domination" are as nice as on the others, they could've worked a bit more on the songs maybe. But "Hatework" is a cool experimental track on that CD, and "Dawn of the Angry" is cool, but most songs on Domination seem to have one or two bad riffs that just sound out of place... The solos on that CD were very nice though... whenever Trey plays slow solos they ALWAYS sound awesome, but sometimes he goes overboard and just wants to shred like a mofo and make his guitar sound like screaming demon.

I hear that "Domination" was the closest the band ever got to commercialism. Well shit, I think they're still on a safe "true" ground with that albuim. "Where the Slime Live" is an unusually groovy track, I like how sometimes they throw in a groovy riff or two in a completely evil brutal track. FFtF is one of my favorite albums. It's got the heavy grimness of early MA, more speed than "Covenant" and really groovy wacky shit all together. I don't want to say it's the best they've ever done but I'll say that Trey was really on a roll when he wrote those songs. Just listen to songs from that CD like "Invocation to a Continual One", "Heaving Earth", "Prayer of Hatred", "Covenant of Death", and the awesome instrumentals "Hymn to a Gas Giant" and the drum solo entitled "Himnos Rituales de Guerra", which is Spanish for "Ritual hymns of War". God damn, Pete Sandoval(the drummer) couldn't be more Mexican than that.

Seriously, when you listen to any of the last 3 Morbid albums, if you don't feel like whipping out a copy of the necronomicon, throw some eerie ingredients in a big-ass cauldron and humming ancient chants, then something's wrong with you. A lot of people ignore what Morbid Angel have done apart from their first 3 albums, they're missing out on a lot. It's very original, spiritual and trancy stuff, with lots of groove, but Morbid Angel's signature heaviness is still there.

I love how Morbid Angel have evolved not just musically but lyrically. Early Morbid was more straight-forward with "fuck-you"-style themes like death, anti-Christianity, anti-conservatism, anti-corporation(very few songs like "Suffocation"), etc. The lyrics now are harder to grasp, they're a lot less colorful. They're more about getting in touch with your inner self and freeing your mind(also a common theme in old MA). The modern stuff is just so much more magical in a sense.

Aren't Morbid Angel such a wonderful band? Please share your appreciation for the band, I think it's a band every metalhead should check out. Does anyone else love MA with a passion?

Post what bands you don't just like, but love with a passion. Another personal favorite is Immortal. I feel really attached to their music. So awesome, different, magical, melodic, and fuckin' fast and heavy! Their music really cheers me up a lot. Last winter I was going through a lot of personal problems in life and shit, just severe depression due to a bunch of issues, and listening to Bathory, Immortal, Therion, and a few other bands really helped me a lot. So there you have it. Metal doesn't have to induce drinking beer, boning an assload of groupies, slaughtering people or summoning Satan from his fuckin' lair.

[Lag]

Morbid Angel... I'm actually not a great fan of them. I've ONLY heard Gateways, and I really like it, so I don't know why I don't love them. But I'll get into them more over the next few weeks.

And that dude that thinks all metalheads are Satanists is just like any other person out there. I listen to Deicide and Entombed, but I don't go around raping and sacrificing virgins etc.

Horse The Band's new album is alot better than R.Borlax, IMO. Great stuff. I love it! Not exactly metal, but great music.

[Soeru]

Morbid Angel... I'm actually not a great fan of them. I've ONLY heard Gateways, and I really like it, so I don't know why I don't love them. But I'll get into them more over the next few weeks.

And that dude that thinks all metalheads are Satanists is just like any other person out there. I listen to Deicide and Entombed, but I don't go around raping and sacrificing virgins etc.

Exactly. Some people go overboard and make such claims to look cool, but in turn they just look like morons. In fact, the majority of metalheads are calm people. This idea that people who enjoy this kind of music are violent/worship Satan is completely false. By the way, people who claim to be "Satanists" are just plain old Christians that want to stand out and get attention, in most cases: dumbfucks that don't know a thing about religion, nor are they making a worthwhile statement like anti-fascism or something. Some people use "Satanism" a medium to provoke Christians, usually it's people that are fed up with the Church. As long as it's done with good humour in mind it's all good. I approach the few bands with "Satanic" lyrics in a humorous sense, unless they are more serious about the lyrics' meaning, then it's like more symbolic.

Behemoth make lots of references to Sumerian mythology but also a lot of Necronomicon/Demonic evil shit, but they use it as a medium to attack the Church, which is apparently very corrupt in their home country(Poland). Vader(also Polish) also have elaborated on this dilemma in some of their lyrics, but for the most part Vader sing about war. Other bands aren't "Satanic", but they attack Christianity in a different way. Paganism in Europe was eradicated by the Church as you all know, and naturally people who believe in such Gods don't think to much of Christians. So from there you get a bunch of (usually Scandinavian) bands singing about rejecting Christian values and embracing ancient teachings from before the time that Christianity arrived to Northern Europe. Amon Amarth do this very nicely. Listen to the song and read the lyrics for "Bastards of a Lying Breed", "The Sound of Eight Hooves", or "Across the Rainbow Bridge". Bathory did this in an extremely classy manner in the song "One Rode to Asa Bay", go on, read the lyrics.

I'm not denying that some people do take Satanism seriously, but these are crazy brainwashed sects like any other. They believe in whatever makes them happy and lead a fulfilling life, and as long as it doesn't promote violence on others, to each his own.

I've noticed that the majority of metalheads aren't down-right atheists, most of the ones I know are agnostic, they believe in something superior but they reject organized religion.


Back on subject: Morbid Angel... so you've only heard Gateways? That's a cool album. FFtF(the one before Gateways) is a lot like that one just not as dark, but it's a lot faster and more melodic in a sense. Heretic(the latest) is like a continuation of Gateways, a little less darker though. It has a few good songs but it's mostly an instrumental/experimental/ambient album.

The first CD "Altars of Madness" is THE classic DM album, you have no idea how big of an impact they had on DM at the beggining of the 90's with that CD and the 2nd: "Blessed Are the Sick" which is another groovy masterpiece, not as heavy nor dark nor fast, but great nonetheless. Then came "Covenant" which is another classic that most DM'ers are familiar with, their sound is pretty much what 50% of DM bands are doing nowadays. Morbid also released an album the same year the 2nd one came out, except that that album was supposed to go out before even the first CD was out. It's called "Abominations of Desolation" and it's basically raw older versions of songs that were re-worked and appeared on the first 3 CD's(and one on FFtF!). It's only for the fans, so just worry about the other CD's first.

Get "Covenant" and "Formulas Fatal to the Flesh" first if you enjoyed Gateways. Then get into the first 2 albums(and demo tapes/bootlegs, if you like raw recordings). It's like... a completely different band but you can tell it's them easily at the same time.

I wonder if the little fellow is going to read all of this . Sorry for boring you.

[Lag]

Thanks for all that info. I actually can't believe I'm not a big MA fan by now, since I'm obsessed with DM and have been for the past year or so. Before that I was all into punk like Pennywise etc.
But yes, I'll get on them soon.

[Megalith]

Yes, you bashed me for liking Antarctic folk music

I'm offended. What goes on between you and me, is only for us to know.

[Soeru]

There's such a thing as Antartic folk music? What's it like? Perhaps some Antartic metalheads have formed a band in the vein of Finntroll or something, only with Antartica's own folk music, which I know nothing about.

[Megalith]

Seems so. Tonberry is a very confused individual.

OMG! The new Helloween, bitches! I'll be back with impressions after school.

[Deathcrush]

OMG! The new Helloween, bitches! I'll be back with impressions after school.

hell yeah! ive been waiting ages for this day!

[Stark]

I know I will be lynched for this, but who are helloween?

[Deathcrush]

I know I will be lynched for this, but who are helloween?

..................




prepare to be lynched... no.. wait.. just leave, okay? leave...

seriously though, how do you NOT know who hello-fucking-ween are? wait till the others see this.