Metal Reviews

I get your point. Arch Enemy's hideous poppy choruses with growled vocals are even worse though.

Catchy pop gayness mixed with growling and awesome riffs is great.

No one should like a candy coated sugary riff with no balls. Melodeath and metalcore bands are great at those.

Yeah, look at Protest the Hero!

Was about to say we're gonna have us some words. I loves me some burping and breakdowns.

I would have to agree with females. I don't really like them on vocals, unless maybe I can't tell in the case of Arch Enemy ( Who I don't like, anyway ) or Ludicra.

Rapping certainly doesn't work. I really love keyboards when used properly, and I'm open to an industrial sound or even a dancy one when it works right. Like Pain is a guilty pleasure band of mine I enjoy.



While certainly a lot of bands abuse the chorus certainly there are a lot that do good with it. I love a lot of In Flames choruses, as well as earlier Soilwork. Since that sort of became the formula for every metalcore band and their mother afterwards it's gotten a bit old... But I still think there are bands that can pull it off properly as long as it's not abused.

And I don't really see how it's all that different from a band like Iron Maiden, anyway. Other than that the vocals change. There's plenty of heavy songs that pick it up fora chorus.

belching

They were who I was thinking of! (and Trivium's last album)

The chorus/bridge is what makes that song. The actual rapping segments are pretty ridiculous and goofy.

This is probably my only example of a good rap metal song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEwKCu0P89c

Trophy Scars have some rap parts in post-hardcore which makes me think it could be done it metal, but I can't think of any examples of it being done well. Metal bands could learn from rap's focus on lyrics and the rhythm/phonetics of words though. I can't think of any metal bands that are really good at that. Trophy Scars and La Dispute have made some of my favourite albums by doing that sort of thing in genres that aren't too far removed from metal.

At least there's consistency.

I like Arch Enemy in the same way I like McDonalds or Australian beer - satisfying in a generic, predictable kinda way.

See, now that's just annoying.

Not all Australian beers are Fosters or VB, you know.

Australia has a wide range of delicious, unique beers.

I think spoken word lines in verses and songs, should be limited to a well thought out track, because sometimes it just sounds weird. Take Vader's Litany where we whispers in a few tracks, and it kind of offsets the balance of the speed.

Fosters and VB are cat piss.

I was referring to Boags, Cascades, Crown, Carlton etc etc. Satisfying but not excellent.


Only truly excellent Aussie stuff is James Squire.

These days my preference is for European stuff as well as Corona and Singha from Thailand.

He said 'successfully', Seinfeld.


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Since it was brought up recently: Autotune

There is just no excuse. I can see using it on a guitarist's "solo" performance because absolutely no guitar ever made has perfect intonation. You know, not as a rule, but when it is needed. Vocally, no way. As easy as it is to re-record incrementally until it is perfect there is no excuse whatsoever. Anyone that wants to argue splicing together 50 different performances is more pure doesn't understand why there are 50 being recorded to begin with.

Autotune as a pitch corrector when you can't get it perfect because of the impracticality of the instrument is a good thing. As a performance enhancer or substitute, no way. Metal is supposed to have enough integrity that nothing going on in the studio performance wise needs to be faked. This isn't black and white, but if you are deceiving the listeners into believing the band more capable than they are, then yeah, that is a problem.

Oh, it is successful allright .. but it's not metal. Or at least, you won't find it in the metal section of a music store, nor is it on metal archives, nor does amazon describe it as metal.

I see RATM getting the "rap metal" label a lot, though. They're on the BNR Metal Pages, after all (but, then again, so is Nirvana ). In fact, even our own MR has reviewed two of their three studio albums.

Whether you consider them metal or not, though, you can't deny that there's a definite metal influence in their music. From Metallica to Motorhead.

Heh, come on, you know that we quite often review stuff that isn't 'proper' metal.

Hey Zad, weren't you supposed to do a Roots review six months ago?