Metal Reviews

Perhaps it would be better for me to have better entitled this post, but title withstanding what are some elements or different sounds, that have crept into metal that you personally dislike? In what way have they lowered the quality of music, and do you believe it was an intentional addition to the band's/album's original sound?

Rapping. Keyboards. Female vocalists. Breakdowns when it's not in grind or crust. Burping.

(only serious about two of those)

haha no problem man, breakdowns have their place in the music, it just matters how they are performed and in what genre if you ask me.

Well, sure. Napalm Death are great at breakdowns, as I meant by mentioned those grind/crust units who know when it sounds best.

Female vocals.

But keyboards gave us masterworks like Daudi Baldrs!

I'd say rapping is one of the only musical elements has never been successfully implemented in metal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yoABwIlX3s&ob=av2n

I wouldn't say Faith No More is exactly metal.

Guitars.
Too much guitar in metal.

Symphonies (silly), synthesizers (silly, sound bad), seven and eight string guitars (sound bad). Instruments other than guitar/bass/drum/vocals are generally a very bad idea.

Not that it shouldn't exist, but it has become sort of a trend to use saxophone in metal and a lot of the bands are completely doing it wrong.

Female vocals tend to suck too. Rapping is probably the only thing that should never be touched by a musician claiming to be metal.

yeah man and drums, too much bass and singing too.

I know, right?

It's all a matter of degrees, and how well you can do things. Breakdowns, fo' instance, aren't inherently good or bad (like religion! and science!), but people insist on performing shitty breakdowns far too often.

As for me, I don't know if I've ever heard rapping performed/placed well into metal.

I don't like overproduction in metal. Some people seem to think that that = good production, but it just isn't so.

Rapping

Yeah rap in metal just doesn't flow very well.

Female vocals works in tiny doses as guest appearences and stuff. ot more though.

I dont get the rapping thing. I mean, what the hell is it? I could easily argue that Rush's lyrics to Bastille Day are rap based on what people consider rap. I don't hear any more rapping in Slipknot's first album than there is on a Slayer album. I think "rapping" is about tone and texture of the sound of the album and has nothing to do with vocal delivery. Stuck Mojo and Limp Bizkit rap IMO and Nu-Metal did not have very much of it at all.

1. Pop choruses - e.g. In Flames, Soilwork, KSE. People that invented these shound be hung, drawn and quartered
2. Overproduction
3. Drums being louder than guitars
4. Blast beats used in whole albums without respite - e.g. Hate Eternal
5. Over utilisation of layering e.g. Blind Guardian
6. Keyboards more dominant than guitars. It's ok in Symphonic Metal ala Cradle of Filth but not really appropriate for Melodic Death Metal or Power Metal.

Wot, Iron Maiden? Poppy choruses have been in metal for yeeears.

They're not the like In Flames, Soilwork etc where the vocals go from growl/shout to pretty wannabe boy band vocals.

In a lot of the modern bands the guitars go into background noise during the chorus as well.

It sounds disjointed and the choruses sound totally gay and gutless compared to the rest of the song.

On the other hand in bands such as Iron Maiden or Helloween or even Motley Crue and Guns N Roses, the guitars are still playing awesome riffs and very often there's some lead work thrown in as well.

The vocals in these older bands maintain the momentum to as opposed to going for complete pop gayness (technical language ).

Yeah get rid of guitars and add kazoos.