GrassrootsConservative (04-11-2014)
In the late 80s and early 90s I went through several years of disconnect from rock and metal. I entirely missed Grunge until I rediscovered it after the mid 90s, and immediately fell in love with Alice In Chains, Mudhoney and Soundgarden.
But what really brought me back were two bands, and they remain at the heart of my metal listening to this day.
The first:
Type O Negative
Led by a True Metal God, the late great Peter Steele was an amazing song-writer, performer and presence. His deep baritone voice was unique in metal, which generally gravitated towards high-pitched Bruce Dickinson screams or guttural vocals. His statement that the two biggest influences in his music were The Beatles and Black Sabbath pretty much guaranteed that some really different music was going to come form them, especially when you add his previous band's--'Carnivore'-- background in Crossover Thrash in the mid 80s. The body of work they left had balls, atmosphere, heaviness, emotion, great wit and cleverness and a literate edge. I love these guys! Their music really speaks to me. Steele's very untimely death was a very sad loss for metal.
GrassrootsConservative (04-11-2014)
Never really got into TON, Creepy Green Light and World Coming Down are the only songs of theirs I know. And although I did enjoy Everything Dies, again, the lyrical content is pathetically emotional and powerless. I suppose the same is true in World Coming Down.
Respect for Steele just for having a vocal range like that ^^ alone. Man. Shivers down my spine with every listen.
Nothing compared to the over-wanky technical metal people are coming out with now though. Could you imagine trying to play your way through something like this?:
/Edit: But yes, Mustaine and those other guys are WAY talented. I've never even managed to pick up even the most simple aspects of instrument-playing, what these dudes do seems near impossible to me.
Too much
Last edited by GrassrootsConservative; 04-11-2014 at 12:48 AM.
It's progression, man. If the people now were only as good as their pioneers they would never amount to anything. I am in awe at some of this stuff, and even my imagination can't picture where the metal scene will be at 10 or 20 years from now. But I can't wait and I hope I am listening to it until I'm dead and buried.
But, have you listened to some of the other stuff I've been posting? There's a whole new wave of ambient metal popping up that's just as brutal but not nearly as abrasive and invasive on the ears. I highly recommend you go back a few pages to where I posted Abruptum's Gehennae Perpetuae Cruciatus if you haven't yet. The distorted and endlessly layered violins whirling into oblivion just outside the foreground creates such perfect atmosphere when coupled with the thunderous percussion. There's not much going on, but that's kind of the point. It's true anti-music, there's no catchy rhythm to be found or get lodged in your head. Just disturbing. I know you once thanked a Sunn O))) post of mine, if you did that because of the music and not the dumb joke I made then this type of music is for you. It's disturbing minimalist noise and somehow I can't get enough of it.
Can you expand on this? What's the other half? Or 50%, if it's not just one part you consider to be "the other half"?Yeah but idk technical skill is only half of it.
Technical pyrotechnics brings me to the second band that got me out of my slump:
Dream Theatre
They basically took over where Rush left off. They are in the front rank of the masters of prog metal. Even their vocalist LaBrie sounds a LOT like Geddy Lee!
They had the best of EVERYTHING: best drummer ever, maybe--Mike Portnoy
best bassist, perhaps--John Myung
one of the best guitarists--John Petrucci
Just a formidably well-equipped and fully-loaded band all round! They could do just about ANYTHING they wanted to do. Sadly, Portnoy left a couple of years ago, gutting the band in many ways.