It's been in a piss-poor state since the shower of shite that was Nu-metal was foisted upon us - hasn't it? Things are starting to look up a bit though - there is finally light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe things were getting a bit stale before Nu-metal came along and a breath of fresh air was needed? What we got instead was some foul smelling dogbreath. Yes - Nu-metal stank!
Change can be a very positive force in music - look at Punk, and more recently Grunge. There was nothing positive about Nu-metal - it was negative and dumbed down to the Nnnnnth degree. It was no longer 'cool' to be able to sing or play a decent guitar solo. Talent was 'out' and downtuning was 'in'. Having 'issues' was in too. Like nobody ever had issues before? Some of us remember Bon Scott singing "and my mother hates me!" in AC/DC's 'Problem Child'. The art of of creating a good riff went out the window - two note riffs repeated for most the song were good enough. You hardly even needed anything you could call a 'song' anymore - a shit two note riff with someone screaming or shouting over it was fine.
The music media were happy - they had discovered the 'Next big thing'. Here kids - buy this! Yes - this will really piss your parents off! And that was all that mattered. Just like rock & roll, heavy metal, punk, and eventually grunge - kids want to rebel against their parents, so they need to find some music their parents will hate. Hey kid - here's Limp Bizkit. Look - this (middle aged record company CEO) has his (tailored) baseball cap on back to front just like you - he's 'down with the kids'. Here's some music about hating your parents - here's some music about your parents not understanding you. Look - these guys hate their parents too - they're just like you.
And the kids bought it - just like the music press told them to, after the big record companies had told them to - and bought loads of advertising space. Job done.Suddenly all these new groups are saying Black Sabbath is their favourite band - 'cos they're so heavy man! But when these same new bands are interviewed and asked who they grew up listening to and who's records they bought as kids it's all Duran Duran, Human League, Soft Cell, and Depeche Mode. What the fuck? I wasn't buying any of their bullshit, but Kerrang! were pushing it all down their throats and the kids were swallowing it hook line and sinker. It didn't seem to matter that all these bands looked and sounded virtually the same. And if any kid thought they were virtually the same? 'Hey kid - here's Slipknot'. That kept them quiet - and their parents hated that shit even more. Job done.
Most the older (post teenage) generation weren't fooled, but the kids didn't know any better. Most of them had never heard the classic rock bands of old - they went straight from chart pop music to Nu-metal. They didn't know there was anything else - anything better - anything with decent songs. I didn't buy into all the fake angst at all, but a generation of kids did. I don't need to hear a band of millionaires whining about how shit their life is. I've got enough of my own shit to deal with - fuck off - I don't want to hear about yours as well. Go and listen to the blues instead. Or even play the blues - then maybe I'll be able to relate to you. At least if it's more sincere than the fake shit you are churning out 'for the kids'.
Inevitably, those kids grew up and grew tired of the same old 'Nu' shit. Trends change and the media had to find something new, but nothing new was coming along. The ever evolving Metallica even seemed to get influenced by Nu-metal and made an album with simpler songs and NO guitar solos. 'St Anger'. Most their fans hated it! I actually rather liked it because of it's aggression and filthy guitar sound, but the less said about that snare drum sound the better...
Meanwhile, metal was evolving on another more extreme tangent. It wasn't about pissing-off your parents and whining about how shit your life was like Nu-metal. This was something evolving from thrash metal and taking something from Nu-metal too. Now all the bands were competing to be the heaviest and most extreme bands around. They are all striving desperately to out-do each other by being heavier and more extreme than the other bands. The result is they all sound exactly the same. It's just metal by numbers - turn the amps up 'louder' than all the others (although you are all using pretty similar amps and they only go so loud) get a more distorted sound than all the other bands (by using the same effects to overdrive the amps) play faster than the other bands (but actually you can't 'cos they are all playing really fast too) and get your shit singer to scream and/or shout even more. Don't worry about trying to write a good song or anything. Even if you did manage to write a good song you would murder it just like you do when you cover a classic song to try and get noticed. Oh yes - you also need a logo with a really shit font so no one can read the name of your band on the posters. Then you can complain about how no one comes to your gigs 'cos your are so underground. Self inflicted yes?
I reckon most these bands know how shit they really are, and they know they will never make it 'cos they are so bad - they choose to make themselves martyrs and know they can be big fish in a (very) small pond while making out the real reason for their lack of success is because they are so extreme and so underground and rebellious that society and the rock mainstream can't take them. No guys - it's just because you aren't good enough.
All you have to do is write a 'song' with a shit two note riff that a five year old kid could play with one finger. Downtune your guitars to sound really heavy (just like all the other bands) and play really fast (just like all the other bands) and even if you have a good singer - whatever you do don't let him/her actually sing! Every band has to use double bass drums played at machine gun speed and with a shit drum sound so the bass drum sounds more like a snare - it sounds like all the bands have the same drummer. It doesn't matter how rubbish your song is - just follow these simple rules and Team Rock will rave about how amazing it is.
What annoys me about these bands is that they are usually very good musicians (as were most the Nu-metal guys) but they dumb down their act. Some of these bands have singers who are actually really good, but instead of using their talent they scream/shout/grunt. Any fucker can do that. Some of these singers have great voices, but they don't use them - they just scream away. Why be deliberately shit and churn out this metal-by-numbers when you can be so much better? Like the Nu-metal bands most these guys are technically really good players - if you are actually a good band - why pretend you aren't? It's all so fake. Is is because metal is just as fashion and trend led as pop music? You've got to scream 'cos that's 'what the kids want?' But do they really?
You've got the emo/screamo metal merchants as well - this seems to me more of an American thing and is more image based because of that. Bands with a mixture of 'pop star' and Goth looks. Usually the music isn't so heavy or extreme, but certain rules have to be followed with the vocals. Maybe have two singers - a good one and a shit one who screams. Often I hear a song by one of these bands and think 'Hey - what's this? It sounds OK, decent music, a bit of a song in there, this guy can sing too'. And then after a minute in comes some fucker screaming for no reason - and I lose interest straight away. Another potentially good song ruined. Why? It's like it's back to the 'Metal-by-numbers' thing - these guys are in the studio writing a song and they are doing OK. Then someone in the band (or maybe the record company?) says "Hey guys - we've got to put some screaming in - otherwise 'the kids' won't buy it".
This is why I can't listen to Team Rock Radio all day. I like Team Rock. I like the wider variety of rock music compared to the other 'rock stations. Absolute Classic Rock is like 'rock music for beginners' with it's crushingly unimaginative and predictable playlist of the same few desperately tired old songs. Planet Rock plays good music but is boring and repetitive - I never turn the station off because the music isn't any good (although it's not all to my taste) but it's not usually long before I'm bored. So I'll change to Team Rock - where I know I'm not likely to get bored of the music. Then after a few songs they will inevitably play something utterly dreadful with really shit vocals - so I change back to Planet Rock or Absolute Crock again. Soon I'll get bored again and have to go back to Team Rock, but after another few songs they will play something else really bad and I'll be reaching for my DAB presets again. And so it goes all day long... I wish I could leave my radio on Team Rock all the time, but they will insist on playing stuff which is utter shite and then bigging it up like it's amazing - when it SO obviously isn't to anyone who hasn't either got defective hearing or mental issues. I really do appreciate the wide variety of music they play, but they do have some serious quality control issues... These 'rock' stations are between them slowly. killing my love of rock music, so at the weekends I mostly listen to 6 Music instead - particularly mornings until mid-afternoon.
Sorry - my train of thought got derailed there. I've already had a good rant about DAB radio in an earlier post on here. Back on track...
I know I'm having a go here, but I do like metal really - as long as it's good. As in, a good song and good performances from the band members. Meaning in particular a singer with a decent voice who can actually sing - or at least really tries to. OK - not everyone has a voice like Paul Rogers or David Coverdale, but I really appreciate it when a singer really puts some genuine effort and emotion into a song even if the voice isn't amazing. What I don't like is fake anger and aggression - I didn't buy all the faux angst of Nu-metal, and I don't believe the fake anger of most current metal either.As Manowar sang - "Death to false Metal!" It's my belief that a lot of the current really extreme rock and metal with all it's anger and aggression is not what it pretends to be at all - it's actually very commercially minded 'metal-by-numbers' made by deliberately dumbed-down bands in hand with record companies and certain sections of the rock media just to make money - not for any genuine or sincere artistic reasons. It's just neatly packaged mass produced 'rebellion' for the kids. And now we have neatly packaged rebellion for grown-ups too - I give you Nickleback.
However, the current metal scene isn't all bad. Some of the old classic metal bands are still round and making decent new music - Black Sabbath, Saxon, and Judas Priest for instance. Iron Maiden are still a terrific live band and have released quality new music in recent years. Metallica have matured into a 'classic' metal band while not losing touch with their thrash roots. Megadeth, Anthrax, and Slayer are still kicking around in various forms too. And there are good new bands coming though amidst all the terrible ones.
The encouraging thing is that songs and good musicianship seem to be slowly making a comeback - as do bands with an individual identity of their own fighting their way through all the metal-by-numbers clones trying to out-heavy each other. Some of the screamy/shouty/growly vocalist bands of the last few years seem to have realized why their careers have stalled and they can't progress beyond a certain level - there is only a very limited market for bands with shit singers - even if the music is OK. For instance, Fish Finger Death Punch. For years I thought they were rubbish and found their music unlistenable - largely because of the vocals, although I couldn't hear much resembling a decent actual song beneath all the aggression either. Then on the radio I heard them cover a Bad Company song - the actual song 'Bad Company' in fact. Guess what? Their singer can actually sing and even has quite a good voice! So why didn't he use it before? He's been deliberately being shit and wasting his talent for years - this sort of thing really annoys me. The guitarist can actually play a good solo as well - instead of constantly overplaying like the guys in all these bands do. I remember Paul Rogers saying of the late great Paul Kossoff "He didn't play a million notes a second - but every note he played meant something". Most of the current metal guys could could learn a lot from that... Even if Five Finger Death Punch do progress and grow into a genuinely good band as they have shown the potential to - they have painted themselves into a corner with their name and that will prevent them getting to the next level....
Avenged Sevenfold are an interesting example too. Another band who I have been aware of for years, but have failed to make any impression on me with their screamy, downtuned overplaying and fake aggression. Suddenly, for them the penny seems to have dropped - Metallica were really loud, fast, aggressive, and the vocals weren't good - yet they managed to break though. Why? Because they learned to write good songs with interesting arrangements, light & shade and very melodic bits. Then they made the 'Black' album. BANG! Avenged Sevenfold decided they needed a 'Black album' - so they made 'Hail to the King'. Guess what? Suddenly people are taking notice of A7X and they are headlining Download. It's not a perfect album, and maybe they have taken the 'Black Album' influence a bit far - the song 'This Means War' is virtually a cover of Metallica's 'Sad But True'. There is still some pointless screaming on the album, but there is a lot good singing too - the guy has a much better voice and is a much better singer than James Hetfield - who himself has worked at it and improved greatly as a vocalist over the years. This album has the makings of a minor classic and I'm sure will be regarded as such in a few years. It ticks virtually all the boxes that the 'Black' album ticked, although it doesn't quite have an 'Enter Sandman' or 'Nothing Else Matters'. It's a good strong album, and like Metallica's classic breakthrough album it has massively divided their fans - I'm sure many of them were crying "Sell out!" from the minute it came out. Suddenly A7X are getting playlisted on stations like Planet Rock which wouldn't touch them with a bargepole last year. Most the band's fans are pretty young and have only recently got into rock music - so they don't realize that 'Hail To The King' is a far from original sounding album. Metallica's 'Black' album was fresh and groundbreaking when it came out, but A7X's breakthrough album is far from it. From the rain sound effects which open the album (exactly as Black Sabbath opened their first album) to the blatant 'Sad But True' rip-off, to the tolling bell (Metallica again - as well as AC/DC among others) and the Lord of the Rings/Game Of Thrones themes - much of this album is good, but not original, although it is polished and well produced. It will be interesting to see where this band take things next. Like Fish Finger Death Punch I think their lack of foresight might have painted themselves into a corner - not only do they look like they can't make up their mind if they are a rock band or a pop group, but also how many people are going to take artists with names like Synyster Gates and M. Shadows seriously? Good luck in the future with that....
Other heavy bands are starting to realize there is no longer any future in dumbing-down their act. One of the most promising songs I've heard recently is from a new band from Norway called Audrey Horne - it's very melodic, well written and arranged - excellent singing too. Some of the guys in the band (named after a character from 'Twin Peaks') used to be in Black Metal bands. Go figure. There is still loads of great new rock music out there, but I don't much of it is heavy metal at the moment. Where are the 'classic' metal bands of the future? - I'm sorry, but I just don't see any at the moment. There are certainly plenty of fresh new bands coming though in the more 'classic rock' and blues styles who don't sound old or dated at all - I reckon the best places on the radio to check out quality new rock acts are Nicky Horne's show on Team Rock and Phil Alexander's Mojo Rocks show on Planet Rock. Also focusing on new music are Wyatt's New Rock Show on Saturday nights on Planet Rock and Sophie K's Breaking Bands show at midnight on Team Rock Radio.
As for Metal...
No comments:
Post a Comment