Metal Reviews

I feel like I've heard it all at this point in my life and I find myself just listening to the same records over and over, obviously there's new stuff that comes out that I might miss and there's probably an old album or two I've skipped over. But where do you go as a metal fan after you've heard everything you want to hear?

What are your listening habits like right now? Are you in the same boat as me? Are you still trying to expand your horizons as a listener? Is there new genre's you're looking to explore? Are you burnt out on metal in general?

I just keep digging and I still find things that blow me away. It's a lot of effort to be honest. A lot of albums that halfway through do nothing for me. It's a matter of pushing what you're willing to go out and look for while always returning to things you may have overlooked in the past. Of course, you're going to expand outside of metal's scope but it keeps things interesting.

Metal is always evolving and becoming. A true and infinitely passionate person of Metal music will never get tired of Metal because there are always possibilities and potentialities in the world of Metal. I would say move to Classical music; when you actually experience the deep connection that Metal has to Classical music you will definitely appreciate it infinitely more than you are experiencing now. Also check out Ultimae records for some intricate and fascinating electronic music.

You know I just realized that I only had 2 Behexen albums on this computer and I downloaded their earliest full length Rituale Satanum and I'm really enjoying it.

Once I realized I had heard most of what is considered the best of each subgenre, I simply decided to focus on the music that makes the same choices I would as a composer and producer. I probably didn't know what compromises I would have to make of my own or where things would end up going. That is the reason I ended up listening to so many different kinds of metal. But I've written this before; that once I found people making the music I wished existed and was already writing before I knew someone else had discovered that magical formula, it was not very difficult to make my listening habits more concentrated and focused on those aspects.

Personally I am still listening to the same old shit and slowly work new stuff in there when I get a bit sick of the same playlists over and over. One great song every once in a while is all it takes to keep the flames ablaze for me. But all in all I have about 2K songs I would like to hear right now at my fingertips, which is plenty. I've had the music library at 25k songs and I can't say that now that I am down to about 7K that I am missing anything.

Husker, I agree with the advice that Trapt has offered you. I've been listening to hard rock and metal since 1980 and I can't begin to count how many times I have hit a musical wall like you have. This has happened with more frequency over the last 10 years. In fact, I spent the better part of this year away from metal listening to new age electronic soundscape stuff because metal had just become absolutely boring to me.

It does take a ton of digging and research to find music that I truly enjoy now. I think this is because there is just so much music available that it's extremely difficult to sift through all of it to find what I really like. Plus, there isn't the corporate machine along with radio/mtv to market new music the way they had previously to narrow your choices. It's scattered all over the damned interwebs and I just don't have the time to commit to finding the good stuff. I've taken a large part of my time off over the last 10 days just researching new music. It's been nice getting back to metal and hopping back on this forum.

I find that the breaks from particular styles of music is good because I get to discover new genres without feeling like I sold out in some way. Earlier this year I was walking through a renaissance festival and I met two incredibly talented celtic harp players. I was so impressed that I bought everything that each was selling. That took me down another musical path that I never thought that I would enjoy. So who knows? Just try to enjoy the ride.

One interesting quirk I have noticed about myself is that I don't like listening to older stuff at all. I was once a huge fan of Van Halen but now I want nothing to do with them. I just feel that they have a place in my musical history and they can stay there. Kind of like my ex-wife...we had fun for awhile but that's over now. I know it sounds strange but one can only listen to 'Jump' so many times.

Hang in there and good luck finding music that you enjoy.

I think the most productive source of finding interesting, i.e., unique bands that are actually good are end of the year lists. Yeah, a lot of end of the year lists are lame but there are a few albums on most that you just simply probably never heard of that even surprised the reviewer.

I do that as well. I also click on every album/artist that appears on iTunes, Amazon, Youtube, etc...that are associated with a search. The infamous, 'people who bought this album also bought these albums.'

You are a deluded if you honestly believe you've heard it all, sorry to be blunt but since not every band is a Protest the hero or some mind boggling hipster prog band- there are always underground bands either of the same era of your favored classic albums or good underground bands toiling waiting to be uncovered. If you are burned out of the music already, you had no business listening to it to begin with.

I'm very easily amused and excited by music, like a child, so I don't think I'll ever listen to everything I want to hear. It takes me about 30 seconds with RYM, last.fm and youtube to discover a dozen new albums I want to hear. Sad that I haven't been keeping up with metal as much as I'd like to lately because my music listening time has decreased and my interest in other genres has increased



Also agree with this.

Disagree with that last statement. It is easy to get burned out on something when you subject yourself to it constantly. That doesn't mean you didn't appreciate it to begin with, it just means you need to separate from it for a bit to regain your perspective. The way I do this is digging back into some older bands that I haven't heard before. While the style is different, it is nice to see where current artists drew their inspirations from, and where they drew theirs from. By the time you are finished looking back, I think you will find that you have a fresh ear for what you were listening to in the first place.

I always find that no matter how many bands i like or have heard of there are still thousands more out there i still haven't heard. Just so many genre's and subgenre's that one can't really get bored of my metal. Plus there's still kinds of metal to be created or genre's you usually don't see together (ex. black metal/hardcore). So to really say something like this seems a little silly if you ask me.

I think it is obvious that at some point in life a music lover has to study how music has evolved from the primary stages of its advent to its progression into the 21st century. Musicians, being aware of it or not, take musical ideas that have been presented in the past and turn it into their own composition. I agree with Steve that it is impossible to hear everything in the Metal world because of its extreme diversity. Sometimes all one needs is to distant oneself from something and then return to it with so much energy that it will be a fire that will feed itself insofar as it will never burn out. Neo-Classical music, Dark Ambient, Dark Folk, Dark-wave. Search and you will find. It's guaranteed.

Start your own band?

Husker listening to Protest the Hero?

First off, it's fucking easy to get burned out on music, especially if you're the kind of listener who has strict tastes. Obviously some of those people are totally close-minded, but some people actually only like a certain kind of music.

The first band I ever got into was Def Leppard; the second was Run DMC. My have had broad tastes from the beginning, and that's only expanded as I've gotten older, but even I get sick of certain styles of music or bands all the damn time. Of course, I have countless styles/bands to choose from.

The answer husker is probably not something anyone here can provide for him. He's surely not heard everything. That's an absurd notion. And if he's heard everything he wants to hear, then this entire thread is pointless.

That's a rather pretentious view, don't you think? Surely a music lover can do that, and many have, but no one has to.

Those guys are awesome. Some of the most drunken Finns I've ever encountered, and that's saying something.

Not in the slightest! It is not hard to recognize the music from each period and have a general understanding of it. One can broaden their horizons that way and become more acquainted of where the music came from in the first place. By eras I mean the major and influential eras of music like the medieval, the baroque, the romantic, contemporary, jazz, blues, early pop, progressive rock, dark-wave, early electronica, dark-wave, folk (which first emerged in classical music), etc, etc... A true music fan has to have a broad understanding of music not just one specific genre like power metal. Diversity is fundamental in a library of music. Now this does not mean that the person has to always have diversified music taste but the awareness of it will never hurt.

Well said my good man.

My interest in music in general is very cyclical. Some years, like this one, I struggle to even think of three new albums that I like. I simply didn't listen to music very much in 2011 and when I did it was mostly the tried and true stuff.

I just ride with it and don't force myself into a search for something new. It happens organically. Sooner or later, something will ignite that spark again and I'll be blasting metal six hours a day, read reviews, band news and blogs, check upcoming releases and everything like that. I can already feel that I'm in an upswing right now, listening to more and more and it's very enjoyable again.