Unorthodox Metal Opinions?

I think the sole purpose of genres is to attempt to give the uninitiated some idea of what a band sounds like and in that I think genres totally fail.

Instead of classifying some band I've never heard of as "neo-post-hardcore-DYI-industrial-gothic-USMetal" I think it's much more useful to tell me what other bands they sound like. I don't give a rat's ass how you categorize the music, what is it similar to?

I think that the problem is that genres breed like rabbits! Once you have Blackened death and Symphonic noisecore (I may have made that up) when you get a band that takes influences from these and other sub genres you end up with this mess.

I loved the description of the new Cathedral record on the Rise Above website

'Doom glorious Doom'

Simples!

I have been using 'Rate Your Music' frequently as of late and I noticed that bands I have previously considered power metal are now considered just 'heavy metal'. I always thought heavy metal was just a generic term, or just a different way of calling metal music. I'm not sure I follow what RYM mean when they categorize a band like Bloodbound as heavy instead of power metal.

Hair Metal is a put down and a dismissal. I don't like it.

back when I was growing up and you wanted to explain how a band sounded, you'd say something like "sounds like Priest meets UFO with a Beatles vibe thrown in". Not exact and completely subjective, but it made sense to me.

Alex Dee Rokket wrote:

I have been using 'Rate Your Music' frequently as of late and I noticed that bands I have previously considered power metal are now considered just 'heavy metal'. I always thought heavy metal was just a generic term, or just a different way of calling metal music. I'm not sure I follow what RYM mean when they categorize a band like Bloodbound as heavy instead of power metal.

I can't see the difference between power metal and heavy metal, heavy metal is powerful. As far as I'm aware, I think that we can blame Lars for the term power metal.

I agree that the term Hair Metal is insulting, both to metal and hair!

Without doubt not all sub-genres of metal are for everyone. Also not every sub-genre is widely recognized as being or belonging to metal.

There are some who argue that power metal is not really metal, or put differently, that if a band has clean melodic vocals then it is not really metal. There are those who argue that only really heavy, intense, 'br00tal' / 'kvlt' bands are the only type of bands that can be legitimately considered metal. Similarly, you have people who like metalcore and only metalcore and will not acknowledge any other bands as being part of the metal genre.

I don't agree with those opinions. I have always been more tolerant and inclusive of bands in the metal genre. If it is heavy, loud, solos, played with conviction and energy etc. then I will most likely consider it metal. Hard to explain in a few words but you get the picture.

I have my own limits and biases too. While I try to exclude bands based on how I like their music, rather than the genre they belong to, I do not always stick by that. I do not care for grind/grindcore. I have listened to a few bands, and all I can say I have written off grind completely - it just does not match with my tastes. I am not slagging off grind, I'm not bashing any bands and I do not wish to make any comments about it. There are those who like it and that's fine but it is not for me.

Outside of grind, I am very choosy with other genres. It all comes down to the band itself and how much I like them. There's a significant amount of awful bands in all sub-genres so I try to explore as many sounds as possible and discover what I like best to add to my collection.

What's funny is that there's Grind, Grind-core, Deathgrind, Goregrind, Porngrind, Noisegrind, and Technogrind. Other than subject matter and that last one, I have no idea what the difference is between them all.

Just so this thread doesn't totally veer off into something beat to death..

http://www.heartofmetal.net/t19374-first-american-metal-band

much reading material on this here debate (which evolved itself), if one likes to read...it's not exactly exactly this but we did go through the hard rock stuff quite a bit

Perhaps I should try and keep things on track here:

AC/DC albums should be recognized as critic proof, for they are all simply wonderful.

I love early Judas Priest to death, but have to admit some of their songs meander quite a bit.

There is one bad that has zero redeeming qualities and is a mockery of all things hard rock and its name is Chickenfoot.

Lita Ford is overrated as a metal chick and guitar virtuoso, she is neither and her music is bland (has anyone else noticed the similarities between the verse of Kiss me Deadly and Jingle Bell Rock?).

Paul Gilbert is one of my favorite guitarists, but moving to Mr Big was just a horrible tragedy.

Y&T's studio albums are gut-wrenching to listen to, but their live albums are amazing.

Deep Purple suck j/k I think I'm running out of unorthodox opinions here.

Speaking of Priest, Sad Wings Of Destiny I found to be rather overrated, I also do not tihnk Beyond The Realms Of Death is even close to being one of the band's best songs.

I like Deep Purple's 80s output better then their 70s material.

I like the Joe Lynn Turner Rainbow albums over all the others.

For Lita Ford, I actually liked Wicked Wonderland, yeah the lyrics get kinda silly at times, but it's still pretty fun catchy music.

I don't really like instrumental albums.

Sad Wings always felt like an EP to me; only half of it was really good while the other half was interesting at best. Still love it for Victim and Tyrant, though.

Vexer6 wrote:

Speaking of Priest, Sad Wings Of Destiny I found to be rather overrated, I also do not tihnk Beyond The Realms Of Death is even close to being one of the band's best songs.

I like Deep Purple's 80s output better then their 70s material.

I like the Joe Lynn Turner Rainbow albums over all the others.

For Lita Ford, I actually liked Wicked Wonderland, yeah the lyrics get kinda silly at times, but it's still pretty fun catchy music.

Yup, those are pretty "Unorthodox" opinions.

I like all Deep Purple, but their early 70's stuff is outstanding. Untouchable IMO.

I prefer Dio-era Rainbow over all else. Rainbow Rising is one of the greatest albums ever recorded.

IMO Wicked Wonderland is ok, far from her best and the lyrics are terrible.

Vexer6 wrote:

I don't really like instrumental albums.

I actually hear this a lot from people. I don't think this one is all that uncommon.

OK this has to be a joke, I like Lita Ford, but Wicked Wonderland was such a steaming pile of dog turd, that it caused her marriage to implode, her children to disown her, dragged Cherie Currie out of her musical exile and even forced Joan Jett coming out of the closet. The horror.

manny wrote:

OK this has to be a joke, I like Lita Ford, but Wicked Wonderland was such a steaming pile of dog turd, that it caused her marriage to implode, her children to disown her, dragged Cherie Currie out of her musical exile and even forced Joan Jett coming out of the closet. The horror.

manny wrote:

OK this has to be a joke, I like Lita Ford, but Wicked Wonderland was such a steaming pile of dog turd, that it caused her marriage to implode, her children to disown her, dragged Cherie Currie out of her musical exile and even forced Joan Jett coming out of the closet. The horror.

Relax dude, it's not a joke, i'll admit it's certainly not her best album, but it's far from terrible. I find the lyrics kinda funny actually.

*Thread has been cleaned up to remove subject matter not relevant to a music discussion*

Vexer6 wrote:

manny wrote:

OK this has to be a joke, I like Lita Ford, but Wicked Wonderland was such a steaming pile of dog turd, that it caused her marriage to implode, her children to disown her, dragged Cherie Currie out of her musical exile and even forced Joan Jett coming out of the closet. The horror.

Relax dude, it's not a joke, i'll admit it's certainly not her best album, but it's far from terrible. I find the lyrics kinda funny actually.

You are better man then me, I like Lita Ford but I thought the album was horrid, maybe I will one day give it another chance if I find it used and cheap somewhere

manny wrote:

Vexer6 wrote:

manny wrote:

OK this has to be a joke, I like Lita Ford, but Wicked Wonderland was such a steaming pile of dog turd, that it caused her marriage to implode, her children to disown her, dragged Cherie Currie out of her musical exile and even forced Joan Jett coming out of the closet. The horror.

Relax dude, it's not a joke, i'll admit it's certainly not her best album, but it's far from terrible. I find the lyrics kinda funny actually.

You are better man then me, I like Lita Ford but I thought the album was horrid, maybe I will one day give it another chance if I find it used and cheap somewhere

i agree with Manny. this was terrible to listen to and the lyrics were really lousy.

I like Doro's Machine II Machine.

I dig accented vocals. A lot.

I love listening to stuff that is in languages I don't speak. Even better when I don't know what they're singing but I get it's meaning.

jstate wrote:

I love listening to stuff that is in languages I don't speak. Even better when I don't know what they're singing but I get it's meaning.

Me too.

I love the priest, but breaking the law is one of their weakest songs.

Fear Not was the greatest (and possibly last) of the Christian "pop-" metal bands. Larry Worley is an insane vocalist FTW.

jstate wrote:

I like Doro's Machine II Machine.

Man so do I. It has what I consider to be the best song she's ever recorded, Like Whiskey Straight.

Also... The Bush era Anthrax was the best Anthrax!

corplhicks wrote:

Fear Not was the greatest (and possibly last) of the Christian "pop-" metal bands. Larry Worley is an insane vocalist FTW.

One of my favorite albums right here, but definitely NOT pop metal. These guys have way more in common with bands like Armored Saint or Saint for that matter. This is a slab of true traditional metal.

jettafiend wrote:

corplhicks wrote:

Fear Not was the greatest (and possibly last) of the Christian "pop-" metal bands. Larry Worley is an insane vocalist FTW.

One of my favorite albums right here, but definitely NOT pop metal. These guys have way more in common with bands like Armored Saint or Saint for that matter. This is a slab of true traditional metal.

You're right; they're tough to pigeonhole, thus the quotes around pop. They have a rough, modern hard rock vibe about them. Lots of reviews compare them to Skid Row, but I only see a slight resemblance.

Here's a treat for you: ladies and gentlemen, Larry Worley of Fear Not.