Then and now...

Rhapsody I used to love them however the Triumph or Agony album really put me off and when i picked up the new album I listened to about half of it and was blahhh. Yes it is better than the T or A but I just had no interest anymore

There's something to be said about the bands that make such an impact on you that their music becomes part of you and the type of bands that have a transitory appeal...

The bands that I no longer care for , e.g. Rhapsody, are the type of bands that didn't stand the test of time and whose music had little or no impact on me. Contrasting that with bands that did have a lasting impact and that I still listen to many years after I got into them, I say that I find it a bit silly when metalheads go on about how they still like everything.

The way I see it, discarding some bands has made me a bigger fan of other bands - rather than wasting my time with say a band like Sonata Arctica I'd rather spend more time listening to and collecting albums by a band like Saxon.

Alex Dee Rokket wrote:

There's something to be said about the bands that make such an impact on you that their music becomes part of you and the type of bands that have a transitory appeal...

Absolutely. That was what I was attempting to say, but you nailed it. I'm not just a "fan" of people like Jimi Hendrix or Tony Iommi, their music has embedded itself into my DNA.

A few that I used to like and cannot stand now days:

DRI
Sepultura
Slayer
Anthrax
Wasp
Ozzy Osbourne

tohostudios wrote:

I've just about totally turned my back on power metal and female-fronted metal. Bands like Hammerfall, Nightwish, Blind Guardian, Kamelot, Within Temptation, Epica, etc, etc.

These days I'm all about glam/sleaze and punk. I still have all the CDs by those other bands just in case I return to that style some day but right now I just can't see that ever happening.

I havent totally turned my back on pm but toho got me to bite on sleaze/glam. I am also rediscovering 80s pop. Its probably a passing phase but its good to hear some of the stuff I grew up on again. Some bands I used to like but really dont listen to much anymore:

Sonata Arctica
Dragonforce
Edguy
Iced Earth

Death/Black metal - all i used to listen to was dm/bm. Now I really cant listen to much anymore. I like stuff that is more melodic.

Christian metal - I used to be all over the genre but now I am a lot more selective.

Metallica - Loved them through Masters, but now, no thanks.

When I first got into metal (at age 7) I really liked euro power metal. Kinda grew out of it when I was 13, and since then I've pretty much been listening to the same music, although I liked black metal a lot more when I was just a bit younger.

Yeah I also still like and listen to everything I had from back in the day. It's all still so good to me.

I still listen to what I listened to back in the day.

There was a time where I was a pretty big Bon Jovi fan. To this day I will at least listen to a new album but I cant say I am a "fan" anymore. I even find myself changing the station if they come on the radio. They just make me roll my eyes now. They don't suck as musicians or anything, I just don't want to hear it. That's a pretty big jump from owning all the albums & the box set to just not caring.

Queensryche also used to be a HUGE band for me. I still love and will listen to everuthing up to and including Promised Land but beyond that these days I just can't say I am all that interested beyond a couple spins of a new album.

When I am fan I guess I am fan for life, and I will even forgive a band if they make lackluster albums from time to time.

Sometimes I get in certain moods to listen to certain artist or number of artist, or style of music, and then I may stop and listen to something else for awhile, but I have rarely dropped an artist or musician. I still like Quiet Riot which is about the uncoolest thing to admit.

The big difference between then and now is that I listen to a wider (much wider) range of music then I did back then and I more open minded to other genres and stylistic changes then I was when I was a teenager, some of the artist I like alot I would not have dreamed of listening to back then.

tohostudios wrote:

I've just about totally turned my back on power metal and female-fronted metal. Bands like Hammerfall, Nightwish, Blind Guardian, Kamelot, Within Temptation, Epica, etc, etc.

I was WAY into the big Euro Power Metal Boom in the late 90s/early 00s as well, but have more or less lost interest in it. The problem is that most of the bands that came out of that boom (i.e. HammerFall, Iron Savior, Primal Fear, etc.) started out with one or two really good, strong records, and after that they just kept making the same album over and over again. So I got tired of buying the same bread in a new wrapper every other year, if you know what I mean.

That said, I'll still throw on say, JAWS OF DEATH by Primal Fear or LEGACY OF KINGS by HammerFall and rock out to 'em on occasion... I'm just not terribly interested in new material from either one.

Fat Freddy wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

I've just about totally turned my back on power metal and female-fronted metal. Bands like Hammerfall, Nightwish, Blind Guardian, Kamelot, Within Temptation, Epica, etc, etc.

I was WAY into the big Euro Power Metal Boom in the late 90s/early 00s as well, but have more or less lost interest in it. The problem is that most of the bands that came out of that boom (i.e. HammerFall, Iron Savior, Primal Fear, etc.) started out with one or two really good, strong records, and after that they just kept making the same album over and over again. So I got tired of buying the same bread in a new wrapper every other year, if you know what I mean.

That said, I'll still throw on say, JAWS OF DEATH by Primal Fear or LEGACY OF KINGS by HammerFall and rock out to 'em on occasion... I'm just not terribly interested in new material from either one.

That's exactly how I feel. While some of those euro-power bands have released some really remarkable albums earlier on in their careers their newer albums just don't really excite me in any way. In general, the current albums by euro-power bands that emerged say 15 years ago not only sound all kinda the same but they sound like watered down versions of the earlier 'classic' albums.

Hammerfall has had their ups and downs and are probably one of the few bands that are still trying to at least release something slightly different yet without moving too far away from the original style. With Hammerfall it comes down to the quality rather than the originality of new releases. With that in mind, I liked the last 2 Hammerfall albums about as much as the first two - it's the stuff in the middle from Renegade through to Chapter V that I found lacking and rather boring.

With Primal Fear, I think the band kinda ran out of steam around Black Sun. To me that was the last really good album. Again they weren't about originality, it was more about continuing a legacy or style that Priest more or less started with Painkiller. Nearly all of the early Primal Fear albums tend to be a tribute to mid - late 80s Priest. When Primal Fear became a darker, more serious sounding band I felt it was just all too strange for me. I never took them seriously to begin with, they were always more or less a Priest-tribute band but switching to a darker sound just simply did not do it for me.

Alex Dee Rokket wrote:

With Primal Fear, I think the band kinda ran out of steam around Black Sun.

I thought PF's formula was already showing by NUCLEAR FIRE (3rd album). By the time BLACK SUN came around I was pretty much done with'em.

Granted, they were never the most original band to begin with (recipe for Primal Fear: combine Judas Priest's PAINKILLER + Accept's BALLS TO THE WALL in a large bowl, sprinkle with a touch of RISING era Rainbow, mix well, bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, garnish with a light drizzle of cheese...hahaha) but NUCLEAR FIRE was the disc where I said "Ehhh, these guys are just spinning their wheels now."

Though I will say that PF's NEW RELIGION was a decent listen. Not as heavy on the Priest/Accept clone-age, and the duet w/the chick from Epica was neat stuff (would've sounded great on the soundtrack to an "Underworld" style movie...haha). When that one came out I sez "Wow, maybe they're finally starting to develop their own sound...." Of course, bands generally don't wait till their sixth or seventh record to do that.

I went thru a BIG Prog Metal phase in the late 90s/early 2000s. I mean, I was actively looking for and devouring anything considered Prog Metal. Vanden Plas, Lemur Voice, Shadow Gallery, Zero Hour, Ark, Adagio, Andromeda, Artension, Ayreon, Conception, Dali's Dilemma, Dream Theater, Fates Warning, Enchant, Evergrey, Liquid Tension Experiment, Ice Age, Planet X, Pain Of Salvation, Prototype, Royal Hunt, Star One, Superior, Symphony X, Threshold, Vanishing Point...I had ALL the CDs by these bands at one time...now I just don't care as much. I guess I burned myself out...

These days, I really enjoy simpler music...

I used to be a really big Anthrax fan but nowadays I'm not very interested in their stuff beyond Among the Living.

I'm also nowhere near as interested in thrash or especially hardcore stuff as I used to be.

Quote :

I'm not entirely sure, it probably has a lot to do with the aggression of the music - how it's played. If I want to listen to "heavy" music these days, I tend to listen to hard rock.

You sound kind of like how I was at that age - I got into metal when I was pretty young, then late in high school through college I went through my "broadening horizons/experimental" phase and listened to almost no metal at all, then eventually I got back into metal in a really big way and now I'm probably a much bigger metal fan than I was growing up

I am & will always be a metal fan, but I haven't listened to much in a while. I will come back to it, I just have spells where I need to calm down a bit. I've been on an old school Country & Swing kick lately. I have bought quite a few Metal platters & have not even listened to them yet.

Stratovarius
Blind Guardian
Rhapsody
Labÿrinth
Use to listen to them all constantly. Haven't really pulled any of their CDs out in years. I don't dislike these bands. Just haven't really been into them. I'm sure my interest in them will be resurrected at some point.

Death metal
Use to really be into it in the 90's. Not sure why, but just can't seem to get into it much anymore beyond the old standards. I've sold/traded off a lot of my death metal CDs over the last decade only holding onto a handful of gems like Carcass, Bolt Thrower, Six Feet Under, Mortification, Death, Gorefest, Metanoia, etc.

ultmetal wrote:

Stratovarius

Stratovarius are the ultimate "you heard one album, you heard'em all" band. I used to have a couple of their CDs (again, during the aforementioned Late 90s Euro Power Metal Boom when I was buying up pretty much anything with swords or dragons on the cover...hahaha) but eventually ditched everything except their THE CHOSEN ONES compilation CD. That's pretty much all the Strato I'm ever gonna need.

ultmetal wrote:

Blind Guardian

I really wanted to get whole hog into this band but never could. I liked (and still like) SOMEWHERE FAR BEYOND but have pretty much given up on BG since. I've heard/owned several of the subsequent albums and none of'em did a thing for me. Gimme Demons & Wizards any day.

ultmetal wrote:

Rhapsody

Abso-freakin-lutely ridiculous band. I had one of the SYMPHONY OF ENCHANTED LANDS discs for a while (Part II, I think) and I couldn't even make it all the way through it. They're great musicians, no doubt, but so over the top that it becomes hilarious pretty quickly. They actually make Manowar look subtle and restrained... haha.

I've pretty much purged most of my 90's-era power metal from my collection with a few exceptions. It just all started to sound to samey for me.

I may delve back into some glam/sleeze stuff that I've overlooked in the last few years. Ripping some of the older classics into the home computer has sparked a bit of interest in the genre again.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I've pretty much purged most of my 90's-era power metal from my collection with a few exceptions. It just all started to sound to samey for me.

I may delve back into some glam/sleeze stuff that I've overlooked in the last few years. Ripping some of the older classics into the home computer has sparked a bit of interest in the genre again.

It sounds samey to me as well some of it is a lot of fun. I have no doubt glam/sleaze will follow the same path though...

exact33 wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I've pretty much purged most of my 90's-era power metal from my collection with a few exceptions. It just all started to sound to samey for me.

I may delve back into some glam/sleeze stuff that I've overlooked in the last few years. Ripping some of the older classics into the home computer has sparked a bit of interest in the genre again.

It sounds samey to me as well some of it is a lot of fun. I have no doubt glam/sleaze will follow the same path though...

I'm certainly gonna take my good sweet time and really be selective if and when I get back into the sleeze genre. I just don't have the time or money like I did. I went on a tear for awhile there and was buying up all kinds of power metal, some just based on cool covers or maybe hearing 1 song. I won't make that mistake again.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

exact33 wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I've pretty much purged most of my 90's-era power metal from my collection with a few exceptions. It just all started to sound to samey for me.

I may delve back into some glam/sleeze stuff that I've overlooked in the last few years. Ripping some of the older classics into the home computer has sparked a bit of interest in the genre again.

It sounds samey to me as well some of it is a lot of fun. I have no doubt glam/sleaze will follow the same path though...

I'm certainly gonna take my good sweet time and really be selective if and when I get back into the sleeze genre. I just don't have the time or money like I did. I went on a tear for awhile there and was buying up all kinds of power metal, some just based on cool covers or maybe hearing 1 song. I won't make that mistake again.

Totally understand that, especially since some of the new glam are imports and more $$$...

I've learned to not immerse myself into a genre so totally. Thrash and American power metal I never seem to burn out on but I overdid the female fronted thing for awhile and now it makes me cringe.
As for Primal Fear, I enjoy their mix of Priest with some Accept and I don't think it all sounds the same. On Seven Seals they added more melody and have kept it. Of course, i'm a fanboy.

I have never been a huge fan of Glam/Sleaze music. In the 80s, my favorite bands were always the melodic bands...Dokken, Night Ranger, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Queensryche, etc. I listened to a little Crue but overall was never a fan of the Poison, LA Guns, Guns N Roses, Tuff, Pretty Boy Floyd vibe at all...