Post by Xicrog on Sept 6, 2007 16:10:28 GMT -5
Seriously, it's not! Wait a moment...
*gets on soapbox*
*falls off soapbox*
*mutters in annoyance, climbs carefully back onto soapbox*
Ahem. Anyway, metal is not all death and gore and Satan and dissonance and lack of general musical quality like some would have you think. Particuarly with bands like Within Temptation, Nightwish, and Sonata Arctica you end up with at least one ballad (i.e. down-tempo, typically depressing song). Sonata is especially well-known for their ballads, which usually make more sense than their other songs (but give them a break, English is a second language for all the members in Sonata).
It's like in the public eyes the only genre of metal that exists is thrash, black, and death metal. And it's a really annoying, because there are a lot of great bands out there from more obscure genres. Melodic speed/power (Daisuke Ishiwatari, Rhapsody of Fire), operatic/symphonic (Nightwish, Within Temptation, Trans-Siberian Orchestra), Progressive (Sonata Arctica, Stratovarius) and Christcore (Narnia, Demon Hunter, and possibly Blind Guardian*).
Yeah, if you haven't noticed by now I kind of prefer the melodic subgenres. Personal preference, and sorry if I offended people with leanings towards thrash or classic metal...but it's kind of offensive to my ears after spending seven years in symphonic band and growing up on classical music.
And not all metal lyrics are about being as offensive as humanely possible, too! Sonata writes songs about Finnish old wives tales, wolves, relationship breakups, wolves, and...um...wolves. I'm serious about the wolf thing. Full Moon, The Vice, It Won't Fade, Wolf and Raven, Ain't Your Fairytale, and others I've forgotten. Plus, the afforementioned Christcore bands write songs mostly resembling lyric-wise worship music, but waaaaay more intense. Power metal in general is more about uplifting lyrics as well.
One of the requirements for me liking a band is that the singer can, in fact, sing. As opposed to shrieking, howling, speaking guttrally, snarling, etc. Demon Hunter could be really good, their singer can sing...except he doesn't do it enough, and spends way too much time doing this numetal-ish screaming that is extremely grating. Conversely, most of my favorite bands have classicaly-trained female singers. Tarja and Anette of Nightwish, and Sharon of Within Temptation.
I kind of prefer if such newfangled musical concepts like dynamics, tempo, and consonant chords are used too. Just a personal preference.
So, metal. Discuss it. Please?
*Okay, I'm kind of torn on BG. See, Hansi (their singer) is openly Christian, and so many of their songs could be taken as Christian allegories, assuming I'm hearing them correctly. They're not all RAWR, JESUS!!! like Narnia or Demon Hunter, but still...
...you know, I just realized how odd it sounds to say that their frontman is openly Christian. But that can kind of be a death sentence in the metal scene. Just look what happened to Horde. Which is totally hilarious, might I add. Apparently people had so much trouble understanding what their lyrics were about that it took a few months before their label realized "OSHI- We've been publishing Christian music! Quick, drop Horde before anyone else finds out!" I mean, you think with titles like 'Invert the Inverted Cross' someone would have worked it out sooner...but they did eventually, and the frontman started getting death threats. Way to go, black metal scene. Good job with justifying pretty much everything bad in the world that's been said about metal.
Man, that ended up being way longer than I wanted it to be.
*gets on soapbox*
*falls off soapbox*
*mutters in annoyance, climbs carefully back onto soapbox*
Ahem. Anyway, metal is not all death and gore and Satan and dissonance and lack of general musical quality like some would have you think. Particuarly with bands like Within Temptation, Nightwish, and Sonata Arctica you end up with at least one ballad (i.e. down-tempo, typically depressing song). Sonata is especially well-known for their ballads, which usually make more sense than their other songs (but give them a break, English is a second language for all the members in Sonata).
It's like in the public eyes the only genre of metal that exists is thrash, black, and death metal. And it's a really annoying, because there are a lot of great bands out there from more obscure genres. Melodic speed/power (Daisuke Ishiwatari, Rhapsody of Fire), operatic/symphonic (Nightwish, Within Temptation, Trans-Siberian Orchestra), Progressive (Sonata Arctica, Stratovarius) and Christcore (Narnia, Demon Hunter, and possibly Blind Guardian*).
Yeah, if you haven't noticed by now I kind of prefer the melodic subgenres. Personal preference, and sorry if I offended people with leanings towards thrash or classic metal...but it's kind of offensive to my ears after spending seven years in symphonic band and growing up on classical music.
And not all metal lyrics are about being as offensive as humanely possible, too! Sonata writes songs about Finnish old wives tales, wolves, relationship breakups, wolves, and...um...wolves. I'm serious about the wolf thing. Full Moon, The Vice, It Won't Fade, Wolf and Raven, Ain't Your Fairytale, and others I've forgotten. Plus, the afforementioned Christcore bands write songs mostly resembling lyric-wise worship music, but waaaaay more intense. Power metal in general is more about uplifting lyrics as well.
One of the requirements for me liking a band is that the singer can, in fact, sing. As opposed to shrieking, howling, speaking guttrally, snarling, etc. Demon Hunter could be really good, their singer can sing...except he doesn't do it enough, and spends way too much time doing this numetal-ish screaming that is extremely grating. Conversely, most of my favorite bands have classicaly-trained female singers. Tarja and Anette of Nightwish, and Sharon of Within Temptation.
I kind of prefer if such newfangled musical concepts like dynamics, tempo, and consonant chords are used too. Just a personal preference.
So, metal. Discuss it. Please?
*Okay, I'm kind of torn on BG. See, Hansi (their singer) is openly Christian, and so many of their songs could be taken as Christian allegories, assuming I'm hearing them correctly. They're not all RAWR, JESUS!!! like Narnia or Demon Hunter, but still...
...you know, I just realized how odd it sounds to say that their frontman is openly Christian. But that can kind of be a death sentence in the metal scene. Just look what happened to Horde. Which is totally hilarious, might I add. Apparently people had so much trouble understanding what their lyrics were about that it took a few months before their label realized "OSHI- We've been publishing Christian music! Quick, drop Horde before anyone else finds out!" I mean, you think with titles like 'Invert the Inverted Cross' someone would have worked it out sooner...but they did eventually, and the frontman started getting death threats. Way to go, black metal scene. Good job with justifying pretty much everything bad in the world that's been said about metal.
Man, that ended up being way longer than I wanted it to be.