VT’s Music Chat

[Rugeley Villa]

3 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

The nearest thing to metal that I like is (post-growling) Opeth. 

Progressive metal. You heard much of Tool ?

[mjmooney]

34 minutes ago, Rugeley Villa said:

Progressive metal. You heard much of Tool ?

Heard OF 'em, that's all. Recommended album? 

[VILLAMARV]

Metal itself is such a marmite genre. Some people just hate the overdrive.

For me, with Metallica, if we just skim over the fact that they are easily dislikable individuals imo, I never really connected with them much until I was sat in a flat in plymouth in my late teens and someone stuck a live recording on and I realised sat there that it had a lot of classical influence to it and really playful. Different time signatures, different movements within the same 12 minute epic and so on. Compared to the 3 minute pop tunes of the SAW era and beyond and the Dance/Midi revolution of our youths coming out of big 80's hair cockrock and different to the grunge scene. It was just metal, but also different somehow.

As an amateur drummer Lars fascinated me. Double pedal was my nemesis for a long time. The bullet like running action of a machine head pattern for instance is never really going to be my bag but little rolls and using the bass drum to do fills was just really playful and for me I have a fair bit of my self worth wrapped up in the fact that a metal covers band I played drums in many many moons ago did a damn good cover of Master of Puppets. It's my self-taught drumming claim to fame if you will.

But they never made me want to be all agressive and mosh-pit like. I always end up laughing at some intricate part that's loads better than it should be.

Lyrically they've written some great songs down the years in my opinion. Duelling guitar harmonies. There's so much to get your teeth into. But you know, different strokes and all that.

Edited September 26, 2023 by VILLAMARV
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[VILLAMARV]

15 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

Heard OF 'em, that's all. Recommended album? 

10,000 Days is the one that I've been getting into recently, as I was saying to ruge recently elsewhere they are a band I feel are right up my street that I should be loads more into than I am.

I think the song 'The Pot' is particularly fascinating

[Chindie]

9 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

Heard OF 'em, that's all. Recommended album? 

Lateralus.

Aenima, the preceding album, is very good as well but Lateralus feels more like what the band was building towards.

10,000 Days is the following album which goes a bit more chill/groove and has sone great songs on it, but it's not as great as album. They make a very good trilogy though.

Their other 2 albums are quite different. Undertow is their debut and is basically an early 90s grunge-y metal piece with a couple of excellent tracks and very sincere aggression and dark themes, but it's fundamentally a basic metal album from 30 years ago with better song writing. Fear Innoculum is their latest album and is essentially a prog metal album, excellent music, song writing, musicianship and artistry, but a progression on from what made Tool, Tool.

[bickster]

1 minute ago, VILLAMARV said:

'The Pot' is particularly fascinating

[VILLAMARV]

4 minutes ago, bickster said:

Save your shady inference Kangaroo done hung the juror with the innocent

[Designer1]

48 minutes ago, Rugeley Villa said:

Their last proper good album was a long time ago. 

Yeah, I've mentioned this a few times on here before but late 80's I was a HUGE Metallica fan. I think the run of Kill em All, Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets (by far their best album and one I still listen to) was phenomenal.

I saw them multiple times live and to this day they are the only band I've ever travelled abroad to see play live (in Paris).

I think for me, the cracks started to show with Justice for All. Some very good tracks (Blackened, One, Harvester of Sorrow) but the overall direction of more technical compositions, coupled with a lack of 'edge' and the loss of Cliff Burton (the effect of which cannot be overstated enough) just meant I started to lose a bit of interest.

When Enter Sandman came out, I wasn't really impressed. It sounded way too over produced (thanks Bob) and yet again lacked more bite than anything from Justice or before. Still, it was only one track so decided to keep my powder dry on the album.

My mates and I travelled to Nottingham for a 'First UK Listen' of the Black album and my response was less than enthusiastic. I remember distinctly loving Sad but True and Nothing Else Matters also stood out (for obvious reasons) but everything else just failed to make an impression.

I saw them 4/5 times when they toured the album and pretty much every time they played something from the Black album I zoned out.

I listened to 'Load' a few times when that was released (hated it) and every time they've released anything since I've given it a go, but whatever they had that ignited my original passion for them has unfortunately evaporated.

They'll always have a special place in my musical journey but I can't reconcile the corporate juggernaut they are today with the fierce, fearless and exciting riff machine that I fell in love with.

[blandy]

On 15/09/2023 at 10:57, GarethRDR said:

I didn't even know Eno and Byrne had a collab album knocking about, there was definitely an audible "OOOOOOOOOOOO" when I flicked to that one.

I’ve got two. They’re both great. The Bush of Ghosts from absolutely ages ago. And then Everything that happens, happens today, which is quite different, but still excellent. 

[blandy]

On 19/09/2023 at 09:20, Chindie said:

Frankenstein wasn't very good so a low bar to be better than.

Yeah. Their recent stuff has been “not to my taste”. High Violet was a high point and they’ve been falling away gradually since then.

[cyrusr]

1 hour ago, mjmooney said:

The nearest thing to metal that I like is (post-growling) Opeth. 

Maybe try Devin Townsend’s “Ki”.

Its an album he released following the end of Strapping Young Lad and somewhat a reaction to that “heaviness” and aggressiveness. With this album he plays a lot slower, more melodic, very few “growls” but when they are there, it’s purposeful.

It’s also part of a 4 album pack dealing with different styles, you may also find “Ghost” interesting as it deals more with world music influences and very chilled out.

Whilst writing this, try his Casualties of Cool album. It’s a collaboration with a Canadian singer songwriter Che Aimee Dorval with country/Americana swing on it (calling @Seat68).

Agree metal can be very polarising but still think there’s something for everyone within the genre.

[chrisp65]

Lulu, the collaboration between Lou Reed and Metallica was excellent, I have that somewhere. I might be one of only two people that think this, but it was truly excellent and the only thing connected with Metallica that I’ve ever had any interest in.

[bickster]

2 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

Lulu, the collaboration between Lou Reed and Metallica was excellent, I have that somewhere. I might be one of only two people that think this, but it was truly excellent and the only thing connected with Metallica that I’ve ever had any interest in.

You might well be one of those strange 'uns that like's Lou's Metal Music Machine as well then  

I have no idea btw but it's on a to do list as from what I've heard it could be right up my avenue

[Rugeley Villa]

2 hours ago, mjmooney said:

Heard OF 'em, that's all. Recommended album? 

Take your pick Mike, probably just put on a playlist  . Very precise musicianship and not what you call heavy metal in the old fashioned sense. Been going since 91 but only released 5/6 albums . I think you’d probably think they were decent. 

[Rugeley Villa]

I think a lot of metal bands have classical music as an influence in their music. Metallica have some technical time signatures and Hetfieid is one hell of a rhythm guitarist. Megadeth even more technical but less commercial too. 

[Rugeley Villa]

2 hours ago, Designer1 said:

Yeah, I've mentioned this a few times on here before but late 80's I was a HUGE Metallica fan. I think the run of Kill em All, Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets (by far their best album and one I still listen to) was phenomenal.

I saw them multiple times live and to this day they are the only band I've ever travelled abroad to see play live (in Paris).

I think for me, the cracks started to show with Justice for All. Some very good tracks (Blackened, One, Harvester of Sorrow) but the overall direction of more technical compositions, coupled with a lack of 'edge' and the loss of Cliff Burton (the effect of which cannot be overstated enough) just meant I started to lose a bit of interest.

When Enter Sandman came out, I wasn't really impressed. It sounded way too over produced (thanks Bob) and yet again lacked more bite than anything from Justice or before. Still, it was only one track so decided to keep my powder dry on the album.

My mates and I travelled to Nottingham for a 'First UK Listen' of the Black album and my response was less than enthusiastic. I remember distinctly loving Sad but True and Nothing Else Matters also stood out (for obvious reasons) but everything else just failed to make an impression.

I saw them 4/5 times when they toured the album and pretty much every time they played something from the Black album I zoned out.

I listened to 'Load' a few times when that was released (hated it) and every time they've released anything since I've given it a go, but whatever they had that ignited my original passion for them has unfortunately evaporated.

They'll always have a special place in my musical journey but I can't reconcile the corporate juggernaut they are today with the fierce, fearless and exciting riff machine that I fell in love with.

Great run for metal fans as you say from Kill Em All(my favourite ) up until Justice but I agree Justice there was a lot of cracks showing. They changed direction and went slower and more commercial and it worked. I’ve seen them once and they were great.  I had a bootleg back in the 90s called Metallica Totally Destroy Canada from the Black album tour and I played it to death. 

[VILLAMARV]

If there's one band that my non-metal fan mates will generally make an exception for it's System of a Down. I've always found this weird as they are about as heavy or as screamo as I go. I suspect it's the contrast with the slow bits. That and the unapologetic social commentary of course. But yeah, in my experience the people who don't really love the metal can find something in System.

[Rugeley Villa]

5 minutes ago, VILLAMARV said:

If there's one band that my non-metal fan mates will generally make an exception for it's System of a Down. I've always found this weird as they are about as heavy or as screamo as I go. I suspect it's the contrast with the slow bits. That and the unapologetic social commentary of course. But yeah, in my experience the people who don't really love the metal can find something in System.

I know  a couple of people  that don’t like metal or rock but like sabbath . 

Edited September 26, 2023 by Rugeley Villa

[VILLAMARV]

3 hours ago, Chindie said:

Lateralus

Well thanks to this little shout out I just heard the drums on ticks and leeches for the first time. That was a real WTF have I just listened to moment.

[Chindie]

There's a reason Danny Carey is considered one of the best drummers in the world. I've linked this loads of times, but it's worth doing so again. The song Pneuma, from their last album, around the release of the album, but filmed entirely focused on Carey drumming. It's badass.