Metal Reviews

I just noticed that both Oasis' Don't look back in anger and Coldplay's The Scientist liberate the opening piano chords from John Lennon's Imagine, which made me wonder what the most copied riff is?

So I pose the question to you forumites!

The best metal example I can think of is riff from Children of the Grave that Reverend Bizarre copied wholesale, or possibly the chords from Det Som Engang Var which I've heard in Sterbend and Xasthur songs, as well as at least one band I can't remember now.

generic breakdown which is heard in every deathcore and metalcore

Disgorge, Beheaded, Inveracity, and pretty much every band with the exception of Hour of Penance routinely steals or rehashes Suffocation riffs.

99.9% of the retro thrash bands.

Sometimes it doesn't matter if it's a rehash of an old riff, but how they use it and what kind of energy they give off while playing said recycled riff.

Eat shit steve.

Nice to see you admit this.

die.

eat shit and die

I don't know. A lot of people think a 3-note progression that is the same but is in a completely different context (key and mode) is the same.

E, A, G and B in the E minor scale in any configuration are bound to eventually sound similar to something else. The only way out of this is to use complex phrasing with complicated chords.

Alex's Chord from Prime mover before the vocals come in is extremely common. I don't know what key that's in, but the riff is D, D, B, A then E when it resolves the accidentals in the other chords. This is the most common progression ever: the descending 5th to 4th to Root. Alex I believe played the E an octave higher because he's a genius. I could be wrong. It might be in F# though. I don't dissect music like some people seem to think, when I play the riff in E it sounds good even if it's wrong. Playing anything in a consistent harmonic will, ala Iron Maiden/Thin Lizzy leads.

You guys hate theory, but there it is anyway. I don't find knowing that stuff impressive considering how many people know this crap.

"I'm not trying to be pretentious because plenty of the plebs have a firm grasp on these concepts."

You're a piece of work, man.

I think sentences like this are your problem moreso than us not liking theory. I understand the music-related stuff you say in your posts but your writing needs to be deciphered rather than read.

Metal that sounds like other metal

Volume I:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adukrwHY09s

Volume II:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFWEDgRm ... re=related

Volume III:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftsL8hTF ... re=related


etc.

lol at

Kiss - Shock Me / Buckcherry - Lit Up
Iron Maiden - Infinite Dreams / Papa Roach - Last Resort
Chicago - 25 or 6 to 4 / Green Day - Brain Stew

And here it is .. the most ripped off riff in heavy metal!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoyEVTN_ ... re=related

And then you realise you are a boring prog/power band more concerned with chord names than the emotional impact oft he music.

Pshhh, ready a theory book already.

The opening moments of Metallica's Unforgiven II sounds a lot like Iron Maiden's Children Of The Damned. I didn't realize it until I stumbled upon this in youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFvT2qXNJPs

Uhh no. Go play some Rush songs using nothing but Power Chords and get back to me on whether or not it makes a difference. Using complex chords is what makes the emotional impact happen. How do you make a power chord or a tri-tone sound "dreary" for example? You don't you use a chord that sounds that way.

I want music that sounds new, not the same old shit and it ain't happenin' with power chords in E minor. People recycle riffs because they don't have anything to say. They want the glory and want to do none of the work to get it.

Comments like this can't possibly be coming from people with functional hearing.

The irony is that Power Metal is infamous for it's lack of chord variety. It's a lead instrument genre with a dominant singer/songwriter normally writing a good deal of the material, so it's forgivable. It's about layers of melody. Prog is about layers of harmony and it is as simple as that. That is why people get confused about the genres. Talk about not knowing a genre and making dumb comments about it.

Metal is more about rhythm than harmony imo because power chords and distortion were made for each other.

Distortion + upper extensions = yuck

That's why chords in Metal are kept fairly simple. The most you'll get is either a 7th or 9th. The more complicated chords are usually played arpeggiated, or on keyboards or whatever.

That's why you, you know, pick softly and let the amps do the work. You buy sharper picks or use the right tone woods for a hard attack. If bands are using distortion as an excuse it's a pathetic one.