Exactly this. Punk was just as aggressive and rage-filled, but with its anger directed at realpolitik targets rather than being sublimated into subject matter like demons/the occult or medievalisms or bullshit armageddon scenarios (or, ugh, the wantonness of women).
Look up “Strapping Young Lad”; Devin Townsend is probably my favorite vocalist ever. He does some amazing screaming on stage. I recommend:
Have to agree with you here.
:rolleyes:
Look, you’re wrong. There are people who are still taking metal above and beyond. If all you listen to is mainstream stuff like Metallica, BFMV, or the like, then yeah, metal has gotten boring. But look slightly beyond and you see the weirdos doing their weird-ass shit. Dream Theater’s sound has been mutating constantly, Strapping Young Lad sounds nothing like any band I have ever seen anywhere else (beyond other projects by the same frontman), and Symphony X’s “The Odyssey” was bizarre beyond belief.
But then again, think of what you’re doing. Criticizing metal for the galloping double bass or the chugging guitar sound is like criticizing jazz for having saxophones, rock for its typical 4-beat rhythms, or modern “party pop” for being shit–it’s part of the genre almost by definition. I mean, you could change up the metal formula by a massive degree… But then it wouldn’t be metal any more. See also: AC/DC.
Which genres aren’t that way?
All Dubstep/Trance/Electronica/Pop/80s Rock/Grunge/modern pop rock/etc. sounds the same. That’s kind of how it works.
Oh, so we’re going to hyper-nitpick this to death, are we? If it’s not specifically about orcs, and only orcs, then I lose and must concede the point, right?
Good thing you know exactly what I’m talking about, without the need for me to clarify, since it’s blatantly obvious (look at the OP) that much of metal’s lyrical content is fantasy-genre based.
Okay, fine. I was taking you at your word that there were metal songs about orcs. There are certainly many metal bands names that are Tolkien themed. Bolt Thrower is one of my favorite bands, and they’re named after a weapon in Warhammer, though the main theme of their songs is war.
I guess I’m just not seeing why song lyrics have to be reality based to be considered serious.
Possibly - I don’t have literally every punk song ever recorded, but a good deal of it stood out as being far more intelligent than the classic rock and top 40 of the time. In any case, still miles less stupid than the bulk of metal’s subject matter.
I don’t particularly care if someone wants to listen to metal; I just won’t be joining them. The musical style doesn’t appeal to me.
I also take issue with the idea that metal-listeners have a greater tolerance for atonal or non-melodic music. I listen to a lot, and I mean a lot of Laurie Anderson. Some of her stuff is absolutely annoying.
There is no “above and beyond.” Dream Theater has been boring masturbation for decades. Symphony X is stuck in the same fantasy-genre rut that everybody else has been since forever.
And that’s an unfortunate side-effect of the incredible amount of “genrefication” of modern music. It has to be rigidly defined and circumscribed, or you can’t call it by its accepted name. Rock music once comprised everything from the Sex Pistols to Steely Dan, and it encouraged a certain amount of cross-pollination.
And that’s why it takes real freaks to transcend all these stupid boundaries, and why metal is pretty much treading water.
Wow. If you ever met me, you’d understand how silly that is. I’m a balding, 40-year-old husband and father who hasn’t worn a band t-shirt, plastic framed glasses, or skinny jeans in decades. But I HAVE, in fact been a working, gigging musician for, oh, 25 years. Yes, I’ve been a metal guitarist. It was boring after about 6 months.
I wouldn’t go that far- clearly, they appeal to someone- but they don’t do anything for me.
That works for Sepultura or Pantera, but outside groove metal cookie monster singers just aren’t very rhythmic.
+1,000,000
Oh, bollocks. Black Sabbath created templates, but has been room for immense variation within them. Anyway, lots of bands which are labeled metal took far more from Led Zep or Deep Purple. And some did do entirely new things; cf., Faith No More.
Queen aren’t metal. Boo.
By way of example…
Not that the OP’s quoted lyrics are much better, but at least they sound like they might be deep. I’m hardly a Priest fan, but I’ve always thought Rob Halford was underrated as a lyricist; his are often deceptively clever. Take Electric Eye:
Okay, so the rhyming’s kind of basic, but the subject matter is fairly mature.
For the sake of the team, I listened to all of those Strapping Young Lad songs. Fucking awful. It’s not the musical ability, it’s the style. It’s utter pants.
Pffffthahahahahaha. Mike Patton took Ozzy’s sullen nasal whine right off the shelf and used it pretty much as is, and Jim Martin was the absolute prototypical SOUL of a standard gallopy metal guitarist. He’ll admit it himself. I’m paraphrasing, but I once read an interview with him where he said, “I’m a metal dinosaur.” I LOVED FNM. Absolutely loved them, but to say they didn’t pretty much craft the basis of their sound out of Black Sabbath’s music (really very specifically Black Sabbath, in their particular case) is naive.
And if you’re talking about Trey Spruance, listen to “King For a Day…”. It’s pretty much 75% chugging downstrokes.
