Your Unpopular Rock & Metal Opinions

bigbadcon

Kev_2012 wrote: »

And drums take far more skill to master than guitar

I wouldnt agree with this, when do you actually master an instrument?

There are an unlimited amount of things to learn for any instrument.

Napper Hawkins

The image/scene thing is an interesting one, I've had my own gripes with it for a long time despite my obsession with the music itself.

Metal to me has always been about non conformity.

There's nothing individual about you if you look and dress exactly like all your mates, something that seems to be lost on many metal fans.

I dislike metal gigs and festivals for the most part, I just get the impression that many are more into being seen to be "metal" than actually being into the music.

Pubs like Club Hell in Dublin sicken me, poser central and I avoid it at all costs.

GrizzlyMan

Unpopular but have to say : Ac/Dc cant stand them and Dave Grohl gets on my nerves!

Cill94

Napper Hawkins wrote: »

There's nothing individual about you if you look and dress exactly like all your mates, something that seems to be lost on many metal fans.

If you dress yourself in the clothes you like, then that is being an individual, regardless of whether there are millions of others who dress like that, or none at all. The idea of total individualism is a bit absurd anyway on a planet comprising of 6 billion-ish other people :P

I've noticed that some people think that dressing like an individual means just wearing straight leg blue jeans and a normal t shirt. That's fine, but if you're only dressing like that to avoid looking like a typical metalhead, and not wearing what you really want to wear (which could be anything from a battle jacket to a studded wrist band ), then that isn't being an individual at all, it's being a coward!

cosatron

been listening to vulgar display of power allot lately, is it possible that vinnie paul and dimebag darrel(rip) were the best brother partnership ever in a band. honourable mention the cavalera's and the young's.

hidinginthebush

Some interesting opinions here, well here are mine:

I think dimebag was a terrible guitarist. I love the groove riffs, but his soloing sounds like someone kicking a bag of cats. Hence, I hate pantera. Cemetery gates is one of the worst songs I've ever heard.

I saw acdc in punchestown (I think) and thought it was a terrible gig. I couldn't believe how sloppy they were for a band that's been on the go for so long, or how everyone else seemed to love them so much.

Dave grohl really annoys me. He seems to have been elected as the ambassador of rock n roll, but I just can't see why.

120_Minutes

hidinginthebush wrote: »

Some interesting opinions here, well here are mine:

I think dimebag was a terrible guitarist. I love the groove riffs, but his soloing sounds like someone kicking a bag of cats. Hence, I hate pantera. Cemetery gates is one of the worst songs I've ever heard.

Someone's never heard their version of Planet Caravan then.

bnt

I'm a bassist, and one reason I can't relate to most Metal is that the bass is (in my opinion) boring and lazy. Too often it just follows the chord changes as a low rumble or buzz. I posted a Rush video to the "Rate what the user above you is listening to" thread, and the video after that (The Unchained) is almost unlistenable for that reason: like much "Nu Metal". the bass is a synthesised drone with no feel to it. (An exception: Fieldy from Korn.) Thrash can be just as bad - a wall of sound with no audible detail.

Look at how many people remember Cliff Burton of Metallica, who did all manner of un-Metal things such as playing with his fingers. Jason Newstead is pretty good too, but his sound was not - and now they have another in-your-face fingerstyle maverick (Robert Trujillo) on the fat strings. Another fingerstyle monster is Juan Alderete (Racer X / The Mars Volta), and (of course) 'Arry from Iron Maiden. John Myung from Dream Theater is a monster who I could hardly hear in the past, but I hear his sound is much improved since he switched to that EBMM - must try and see them again.

Not that I mind pick playing if I can actually hear the detail e.g. Billy Gould (FNM), Frank Bello (Anthrax), dUg (King's X). My unpopular opinion is that bass is not just the lowest note in the mix: a synth can do that, so if you aren't going to use the full sound coming the bassist's fingers, why bother paying a bassist? :cool:

PickledLime

bnt wrote: »

I'm a bassist, and one reason I can't relate to most Metal is that the bass is (in my opinion) boring and lazy. Too often it just follows the chord changes as a low rumble or buzz. I posted a Rush video to the "Rate what the user above you is listening to" thread, and the video after that (The Unchained) is almost unlistenable for that reason: like much "Nu Metal". the bass is a synthesised drone with no feel to it. (An exception: Fieldy from Korn.) Thrash can be just as bad - a wall of sound with no audible detail.

Look at how many people remember Cliff Burton of Metallica, who did all manner of un-Metal things such as playing with his fingers. Jason Newstead is pretty good too, but his sound was not - and now they have another in-your-face fingerstyle maverick (Robert Trujillo) on the fat strings. Another fingerstyle monster is Juan Alderete (Racer X / The Mars Volta), and (of course) 'Arry from Iron Maiden. John Myung from Dream Theater is a monster who I could hardly hear in the past, but I hear his sound is much improved since he switched to that EBMM - must try and see them again.

Not that I mind pick playing if I can actually hear the detail e.g. Billy Gould (FNM), Frank Bello (Anthrax), dUg (King's X). My unpopular opinion is that bass is not just the lowest note in the mix: a synth can do that, so if you aren't going to use the full sound coming the bassist's fingers, why bother paying a bassist? :cool:

I've dabbled with the bass myself (prefer to play a bit of funk, soul and prog rock for the reasons you list), but there's certainly some awesome metal bass players out there who realyl add something -

Tony Choy (playing Roger Patterson's parts)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utqWrkVEQvI

Sean Malone (this isn't nearly as well know as his work with Cynic, but just as good!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6nJmf7kHy8

The one and only Doug Keyser

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9NgBvsifTE

Steve DiGiorgio doing his thing with Death

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8DqLaF1fk4

Jerone Thessling adding subtle colours to this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzjKMYsiGyk

I could keep going but don't want to fill the thread!

flyswatter

70s funk and disco was the pinnacle of bass playing in music I feel.

SilverScreen

flyswatter wrote: »

70s funk and disco was the pinnacle of bass playing in music I feel.

Wrong, porno soundtracks are the pinnacle of bass playing in music.

Elrollo

Zero1986 wrote: »

Wrong, porno soundtracks are the pinnacle of bass playing in music.

Wrong, 70's porno soundtracks are the pinnacle of bass playing in music.

Deschain

bnt wrote: »

I'm a bassist, and one reason I can't relate to most Metal is that the bass is (in my opinion) boring and lazy. Too often it just follows the chord changes as a low rumble or buzz. I posted a Rush video to the "Rate what the user above you is listening to" thread, and the video after that (The Unchained) is almost unlistenable for that reason: like much "Nu Metal". the bass is a synthesised drone with no feel to it. (An exception: Fieldy from Korn.) Thrash can be just as bad - a wall of sound with no audible detail.

Look at how many people remember Cliff Burton of Metallica, who did all manner of un-Metal things such as playing with his fingers. Jason Newstead is pretty good too, but his sound was not - and now they have another in-your-face fingerstyle maverick (Robert Trujillo) on the fat strings. Another fingerstyle monster is Juan Alderete (Racer X / The Mars Volta), and (of course) 'Arry from Iron Maiden. John Myung from Dream Theater is a monster who I could hardly hear in the past, but I hear his sound is much improved since he switched to that EBMM - must try and see them again.

Not that I mind pick playing if I can actually hear the detail e.g. Billy Gould (FNM), Frank Bello (Anthrax), dUg (King's X). My unpopular opinion is that bass is not just the lowest note in the mix: a synth can do that, so if you aren't going to use the full sound coming the bassist's fingers, why bother paying a bassist? :cool:

As a metal bassist myself, I completely disagree with you.

Passenger

Deschain wrote: »

As a metal bassist myself, I completely disagree with you.

Why do you disagree?

hidinginthebush

120_Minutes wrote: »

hidinginthebush wrote: »

Some interesting opinions here, well here are mine:

I think dimebag was a terrible guitarist. I love the groove riffs, but his soloing sounds like someone kicking a bag of cats. Hence, I hate pantera. Cemetery gates is one of the worst songs I've ever heard.

Someone's never heard their version of Planet Caravan then.

I have, and its not bad. As I said, I love their groove riffing like in "I'm broken,", "5 minutes alone", and vulgar display is a pretty good album. Its just that it seems like every song has a horrible part in it. Take 5 mins alone, the middle part just sounds so wrong in the song. That's what annoys me most about pantera. They have some incredible songs, but therell be some horrible part in the song. The riff in "regular people" is one of my favourites of all time, its so badass! But once again, the middle solo part doesn't fit in with the song at all and sounds horrible in parts.

Deschain

Passenger wrote: »

Why do you disagree?

Because I myself play complex passages in a heavy metal band and I am not alone in that. Most metal does not contain boring root note position bass playing. That is not to say that this does not happen, but it happens in rock too and a lot of different types of music.

What I dont understand is how he then went on to list metal bassists that do play interesting passages. Even in a lot of modern metal (some of which I don't like the music of) the bassists are at a very high level of technical ability, Ryan Martinie and Arif Mirabdolbaghi are just two in a long list of very technically skilled bassists. In death metal we have of course Alex Webster, Jeff Hughell and Jeroen Paul Thesseling to name just a few.

SilverScreen

Deschain wrote: »

Because I myself play complex passages in a heavy metal band and I am not alone in that. Most metal does not contain boring root note position bass playing. That is not to say that this does not happen, but it happens in rock too and a lot of different types of music.

What I dont understand is how he then went on to list metal bassists that do play interesting passages. Even in a lot of modern metal (some of which I don't like the music of) the bassists are at a very high level of technical ability, Ryan Martinie and Arif Mirabdolbaghi are just two in a long list of very technically skilled bassists. In death metal we have of course Alex Webster, Jeff Hughell and Jeroen Paul Thesseling to name just a few.

This is the type of attitude I really hate. So you judge music based on physical achievements rather than creative achievements?

Deschain

Zero1986 wrote: »

This is the type of attitude I really hate. So you judge music based on physical achievements rather than creative achievements?

What? When did I say that?

old gregg

Deschain wrote: »

What? When did I say that?

You said:

I only like Bass players who have rippling abs and can run the 100 in less than 10 secs.

:D

Deschain

old gregg wrote: »

You said:

:D

Oh yea but thats just standard for any musician really.

PickledLime

Zero1986 wrote: »

This is the type of attitude I really hate. So you judge music based on physical achievements rather than creative achievements?

That's an odd comment. All the bassist the poster listed do play material that demands a high level of physical capability on the instrument, but they're also highly creative (listen to Obscura's 'Cosmogenesis' and 'Omnivium' and observe tha Thessling is at once one of the most technically proficient players out there, but equally creative).

Creativity and raw ability are not mutually exclusive.

Elrollo

Deschain wrote: »

Oh yea but thats just standard for any musician really.

Sure dont Geddy Lee and Les Claypool play YYZ and Pudding Time backwards whilst performing triathlons?

Also as an unpopular metal opinion goes:

I dont think Avenged Sevenfolds album City of Evil is that bad!

Deschain

PickledLime wrote: »

That's an odd comment. All the bassist the poster listed do play material that demands a high level of physical capability on the instrument, but they're also highly creative (listen to Obscura's 'Cosmogenesis' and 'Omnivium' and observe tha Thessling is at once one of the most technically proficient players out there, but equally creative).

Creativity and raw ability are not mutually exclusive.

What I find odd is how he came to that conclusion in the first place.

scar 101

Kev_2012 wrote: »

This 100%.

If I start seeing a girl, despite the many warnings I give, the look of shock when they want to hear my favourite artists and I play a Slayer or CoF song is great fun!

Back OT,

AC/DC are awful.
And drums take far more skill to master than guitar

Its probibly the funniest things that ever happen

but guitar i think is harder then drums even to learn the basics

flyswatter

scar 101 wrote: »

Its probibly the funniest things that ever happen

but guitar i think is harder then drums even to learn the basics

I think any instrument is just as hard to master as another. It requires a lot of effort.

Again on mastering though, like someone said before there are so many aspects. Buddy Rich was regarded as having the gold standard in rudimental hand technique but wasn't known for advanced limb independence like some drummers today.

It's difficult pinpointing a whole instrument and truthfully saying that it has been mastered.

scar 101

flyswatter wrote: »

I think any instrument is just as hard to master as another. It requires a lot of effort.

Again on mastering though, like someone said before there are so many aspects. Buddy Rich was regarded as having the gold standard in rudimental hand technique but wasn't known for advanced limb independence like some drummers today.

It's difficult pinpointing a whole instrument and truthfully saying that it has been mastered.

it does take a lot of effort to master an instrument but i think that you would have to spend longer at the guitar to prefect it to such a high level to be called a master of it, but thats just me

PickledLime

I can play both drums and bass (i took a methodical, theory based approach to both, so can apply what i've learned with the bass to the guitar) to about a high beginner standard (let's say on a scale of 1 to 10 I'm about a 4 on both) and to learn the basics on one instrument is just as difficult as the other one.

Cill94

Panic! At The Disco are a really good band.

SubBusted

The first rap/rock tune was not Walk this way. It was Taking care of business by Kurtis Blow in 1979.