ZA Furries

Why oh why can I not stop listening, thinking about even practicing any metal from the 80's?
Is it because of the lack of post processing so you get the true music with all it's imperfections to make it sound more genuine?
Is it because of the skill of the band?
Is it the vocals.

Can anyone tell me?

Its the skill mostly. These days, its so easy, a computer does it all for you. All you need to do is look pretty, pay the record company to peddle your shit, and poof... you're the next best thing producing prolefeed albums.
Playing metal properly, requires skill, and dedication. It is not easy to play the guitar, or to do it like they do, that gets respect. Its fucking hard to do.

Randall wrote:Its the skill mostly. These days, its so easy, a computer does it all for you. All you need to do is look pretty, pay the record company to peddle your shit, and poof... you're the next best thing producing prolefeed albums.
Playing metal properly, requires skill, and dedication. It is not easy to play the guitar, or to do it like they do, that gets respect. Its fucking hard to do.

Sorry, but modern metal is way more difficult to play than classic metal. Go learn a few Metallica songs, and then do the same for Scar Symmetry...

It's not even in the same ballpark!

Perhaps I should refine my statement a bit
I think I got off the track a bit there.

I don't listen to a lot of metal these days, because my angry days are a thing of the past. However, what I did say does hold true for the music industry as a whole.

I like modern and old metal, my playlist tends to have them follow each other now and then.

Don't think you need to be angry to listen to it though

I will give it a try again now that I am calmer. Hmm.. guitars need to go in for service first.

It is all in the style of metal.
I would wholly agree that there is complex and simple music.
Metal also has this. Some old metal bands shredded it out whilst others just played a nice tune to listen to.
Be it Malmsteen or Rammstein you like, I tend to like music when it is raw.

I just love it when what I'm hearing is coming straight from the player's fingertips.
An album like Tubular Bells has somehing like two mistakes where Oldfield plucked two strings instead if one.

I tend to like it when my music sounds like it was made by flesh and bone humans.
Too much post processing takes the flavours out.

Hey! This is exactly how I like my steaks! Rare to Medium Rare, all that wholesome flavour.

Anyway. Back to patterns. A song with depth and of it changes and morphs as time goes on, it is also pretty good. I think is kind if music is incredibly difficult to write. No-wonder some of us are STILL listening to Queen and Iron Maiden and so on. (Whoever has been to their concerts will know how hard the crowd cheered when they whipped out their old songs, goodness, I almost lost my voice for a day!)

Much of the modern day electronic music has lost that depth, it is normally very shallow with the exact same pattern repeating throughout the song for that face grinding 3 minutes. Whereas the typical metal song I listen to (that has over 100 listens) has the Intro, Pre-verse, verse, pre-chorus, chorus,~3 riffs leading to the SOLO that has two parts and a solo finale, bridge/interlude, out-chorus and then the outro.

I simply find that metal has a much higher concentration of music with this depth and skill. It is too easy to make a catchy tune that becomes old and worn out after 10 listens.

I think that Lamb of God has found a nice balance between "rawness" and production quality.

Still Echoes is one hell of a song.

The only processing required for metal is the double rectifier. This gives that heavy distortion. Basically two diode tubes. That is all that you need. Overdrive on the amp alone is not sufficient.
If you are into softer rock, then blown 2N3906 transistors also work well. as the front man of the band Boston, will attest.

Richard Kruspe (Rammstein) uses minimal processing, all he has basically is a MESA BOOGIE double rectifier, and a badass amplifier.

Many riffs are not particularly difficult, but shredding remains hard as bitch- when I was younger I used to get it right to go in scales, until I fucked it up.
The douchebaggery at guitarforum.co.za basically put me off playing for a good while.

Blitzy wrote:I simply find that metal has a much higher concentration of music with this depth and skill. It is too easy to make a catchy tune that becomes old and worn out after 10 listens.

I think that's because metal and rock is actually about the music. Pop stuff is not. Just think about it, you know metal and rock bands. Most pop is not by a band, it's one person's name, like Beyonce or Britney Spears (or whoever people listen to these days). And those people sing but 99% of the time they do not write the songs and they do not play the instruments. I believe most rock and metal bands do everything themselves, they write the songs, they write the music, they sing and they play the music.

Another line of support for rock and metal being about the music and not just some attempt to make someone famous, although that happens, is that they have instrumental tracks. I think at least half the metal bands I know have at least one track that is purely instrumental. That's not about the front man, who is usually the singer, it's about the music. You're not likely to see an instrumental track from Britney Spears or Beyonce because it just wouldn't make sense.

You're spot on correct, Rakuen. Well put

"You're not likely to see an instrumental track from Britney Spears or Beyonce because it just wouldn't make sense."

Especially considering that without the lyrics, the song would not be vaguely recognizable.

You could play an instrumental track of any one of Lamb of God's songs, and I would immediately be able to tell you which one it is.

Sev wrote:"You're not likely to see an instrumental track from Britney Spears or Beyonce because it just wouldn't make sense."
Especially considering that without the lyrics, the song would not be vaguely recognizable.

Have y'all heard this new thing called karaoke?

That's not what an instrumental piece is...

Played without vocals?
Or is it played with only actual-real-totally-legit instruments. So only guitar, piano, drums, etc? (No 'electronic'/digitally created sounds allowed at all?)

Well karaoke versions are just the music but they were written for lyrics. Instrumental tracks are not intended for lyrics and do not have lyrics. I would make a distinction between instrumental tracks and instrumental versions of songs.

Rakuen Growlithe wrote:I would make a distinction between instrumental tracks and instrumental versions of songs.

I guess that that is a worthwhile distinction to make, even though the instrumental track that I keep thinking of is the instrumental version of The Heretic Anthem.

I see instrumental tracks being mentioned here.
Compare Mike Oldifield's Tubular Bells to a song with lyrics (But, listen without the lyrics)
The lyrics containing songs have the purposed Verse and Chorus built into it for the very purpose of supporting Lyrics.

Again, Yngwie Malmsteen is another good example, 'Far Beyond the Sun' is an instrumental but 'Now your ships are burnt' which comes straight after is not.

Instrumental songs allows for showing off instrumental skills and make nice study/work music

Randall wrote:Its the skill mostly. These days, its so easy, a computer does it all for you. All you need to do is look pretty, pay the record company to peddle your shit, and poof... you're the next best thing producing prolefeed albums.
Playing metal properly, requires skill, and dedication. It is not easy to play the guitar, or to do it like they do, that gets respect. Its fucking hard to do.

MODERN MUSIC IS JUST BUTTON PRESSING AND NO SKILL.
THE NEW GT-R JUST DRIVES ITSELF.
IT TAKES NO SKILL TO MAKE ELECTRONIC MUSIC.


It's an easier to access medium, so it's more saturated with trash. And co-incidentally more saturated with decent music.


Just listen to deadmau5's opinions and views on this stuff, he's got some great views on all this.

Fluke wrote: It's an easier to access medium, so it's more saturated with trash. And co-incidentally more saturated with decent music.

That is the one problem I find with it all. There is very good electronic music. Even if I don't like electronic music, I have some songs and one artist I really enjoy.

The problem is the some of the major artists tossing out some catchy tunes that took them about 53 seconds to think up.

Even unfortunately that "Pumped up for kicks" by Foster the People song. You can skip between different parts of the song and it still has exactly the same music line playing. Pretty basic too.

I guess I might be a bit of a music snob.

Blitzy wrote:

Fluke wrote: It's an easier to access medium, so it's more saturated with trash. And co-incidentally more saturated with decent music.

That is the one problem I find with it all. There is very good electronic music. Even if I don't like electronic music, I have some songs and one artist I really enjoy.

The problem is the some of the major artists tossing out some catchy tunes that took them about 53 seconds to think up.

Even unfortunately that "Pumped up for kicks" by Foster the People song. You can skip between different parts of the song and it still has exactly the same music line playing. Pretty basic too.

I guess I might be a bit of a music snob.