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Random metal thoughts


Dead1

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Used to run this on the old Metal fi forum.

Only rule: content has to be purely about metal. 

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First random metal thought:

New Lamb of God "Omens" is pretty derivative.  It's not bad just superfluous.  I think Lamb of God have hit that point in their career where they have nothing left to offer.   They can churn out a decent sounding album but ones that offers nothing over previous offerings and is essentially pointless except as income generation through album sales and touring cycles.   They join a myriad of other bands in this limbo - Amon Amarth, Kreator, Accept, Arch Enemy, Nile, Sodom,  Kataklysm, Dark Tranquillity, Soulfly, Soilwork, Immolation,  In Flames, and whole power metal genre etc etc.

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Welcome back Random Metal Thoughts. We missed you.

"essentially pointless except as income generation through album sales and touring cycles"

That is almost every band 20+ years into their career. It is their livelihood. For a band I like I will gladly take "It's not bad just superfluous" and keep an ear out for new sounds/bands that pique my interest.

 

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The amount of music released/available today is overwhelming. Trying to keep up with all of the new releases each year leaves no room to truly evaluate new music or return to old favorites if you actually try to have a life in there somewhere. When I was on the hamster wheel, I found the vast majority of new metal being released in C grade or worse. Even if it caught my attention and my dollars at the time, I've never returned to it. I blame myself for buying too much crap, but I also think that most bands could/would benefit from working with a label that would help them filter the chaff from the wheat and edit their "masterpiece" to something digestible.

Also, there are only a handful of bands that have been around more than 20 years that I would want to hear new music from. Most of those would never release another album.

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Couldn't agree more, Navy. I've gotten to a point where I'm usually not even excited about new music because the sheer glut of it has driven me to apathy.

I've also noticed that very little of the hundreds and hundreds of new releases I've accumulated over the last five-ish years have really stuck with me. Even albums that ended up on my year-end lists. I might be really into something for a few weeks to a few months, but then it's on to the next new thing...... because there's ALWAYS a next new thing.

Lately I'm getting way more enjoyment and excitement from listening to old favourites or discovering older stuff that's passed me by.

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Great points all around. I found a few years ago, the weekly looking-and I was only looking in pretty obvious places-took all the listening time I had and needed to reassess and reset. And like has been said here, it's not like most of what was great.....a lot of it samey and genres that felt retread without much variation and stagnant. Invariably at years end, I find gems that peak my interest again.  

Gems, finding gems. It is the sheer quantity that can simply overwhelm the senses to the point where it almost becomes a deterrent like IDK, I'm perseverating over gems.....OK, I'm getting an image of of creeping into the cave and finding Smaug's pile of jewels so massive....I mean it's like the size of Mount Olympus. And you're not sure where to start looking. So many shiny objects. You have five minutes to grab the best jewels before being fire blasted into eternity. Aw fuck it, I'm out, this underground cave is making me all kinds of paranoid. 

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12 minutes ago, markm said:

Great points all around. I found a few years ago, the weekly looking-and I was only looking in pretty obvious places-took all the listening time I had and needed to reassess and reset. And like has been said here, it's not like most of what was great.....a lot of it samey and genres that felt retread without much variation and stagnant. Invariably at years end, I find gems that peak my interest again.  

Gems, finding gems. It is the sheer quantity that can simply overwhelm the senses to the point where it almost becomes a deterrent like IDK, I'm perseverating over gems.....OK, I'm getting an image of of creeping into the cave and finding Smaug's pile of jewels so massive....I mean it's like the size of Mount Olympus. And you're not sure where to start looking. So many shiny objects. You have five minutes to grab the best jewels before being fire blasted into eternity. Aw fuck it, I'm out, this underground cave is making me all kinds of paranoid. 

But once you're able to set aside the unrealistic FOMO (fear of mising out) mindset which whispers in your ear that if you don't constantly stay on the hunt then you'll be missing out on all this massive amount of great stuff (which it seems you've been able to do while I haven't) that frees you. Because then it just becomes about poking around and finding a few new things that you think you might enjoy from time to time. And that's pretty easy I think, even when you have limited time.

I know that even I have taken some time off from the hunt this year and made a conscious effort to listen to more of my previously purchased music that's not from the current year. And I've found that rediscovering an album that you bought and then basically forgot about after a short time can be even better than finding a new one.

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^ I tend to agree with that.

I remember a few years ago going through the new release lists with a fine tooth comb looking at what was there, what sounded like it might be worth hearing. I used to use the M-A release list to check out bands I hadn't heard of just in case it was something I wanted. But in the end it became too much effort and I ended up with lists of stuff I would probably only listen to once.

For me this is why FaecesBook exists. I can follow the bands I give a shit about, they tell me when something new is coming (as well as shit I don't want to know), they (usually) give me a preview of what it is and I can make up my mind if I want it. I'm sure I have missed out on plenty of things I would have found some enjoyment from and there is still times where I find bands I haven't heard of or bands I like whose releases I've missed, but I don't really miss hunting down the new release lists all the time.

I'm going through all my 80's stuff again now and redoing yearly lists, some of the CD's and LP's I'm sure are jumping out of the drawers screaming, "oh you finally remembered we're here!"

 

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57 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

But once you're able to set aside the unrealistic FOMO (fear of mising out) mindset which whispers in your ear that if you don't constantly stay on the hunt then you'll be missing out on all this massive amount of great stuff (which it seems you've been able to do while I haven't) that frees you. Because then it just becomes about poking around and finding a few new things that you think you might enjoy from time to time. And that's pretty easy I think, even when you have limited time.

I know that even I have taken some time off from the hunt this year and made a conscious effort to listen to more of my previously purchased music that's not from the current year. And I've found that rediscovering an album that you bought and then basically forgot about after a short time can be even better than finding a new one.

Yes, I've noticed you've posted quite a bit of some of  your old fav's

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47 minutes ago, JonoBlade said:

Is it just me or does it look like Gene Wilder being tortured on the Spreading the Disease album cover?

That is actually Howie Abrams immortalized on the cover of StD, the dude on the left in the CB's tank top next to Scott Ian back when he had hair on his head.

The Heavy Metal Roots of New York Hardcore | Features | No Echo

 

This is him more recently standing between John Connelly and Danny Lilker of Nuclear Assault.

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I only happen to know this little tidbit because Scott Ian mentioned it on stage one night in the 80's when I saw them live and Howie was in the crowd at that show at L'Amour Brooklyn. Apparently people had been asking who that dude was supposed to be on the StD cover. Howie wasn't a musician, he was a label guy who worked at NYHC labels like In Effect Records and his name has been associated with NY "crossover" bands like Agnostic Front, Crumbsuckers and Nuclear Assault.

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Yeah who knows. Scott's spoken a lot of shit over the years and Charlie hasn't always backed him up. It wouldn't surprise me if over the years Charile's rebutted Scott's story with something non committal that questions Scott but doesn't really prove him wrong.

The dude on the cover does look a bit like Frankie, but an older Frankie, not an STD Frankie. So the story that Charlie has been refusing to answer if it really is Frankie for decades, seems to be BS too.

 

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I think they're just glad if people are talking about them. Charlie will be 60 next month and Scott will be 60 Dec '23 so it's gotta be hard to find ways stay relevant as they move into their old age. Can't imagine anyone wanting to pay to see a bunch of 70 year olds try to thrash it up so I think that whole first generation of thrash bands' days are numbered til they call it a day.

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You're not wrong. They cancelled their Euro tour because of 'rising costs', which although they said it had nothing to do with it is directly related to 'not selling enough tickets'. They've been promising an album since before the pandemic and despite their insistence that it's heavier and more aggressive than anything they've released so far they've only released about 3 riffs. They've always seeked attention, they've always thought they deserved Metallica type attention and they've always loved being talked about.

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35 minutes ago, Dead1 said:

Is it just me or Exumed the most unaccomplished band to get any coverage?  Never heard one album of theirs that was interesting enough to warrant listening a second time.

I tend to agree.

For our Australian members there is a show on tv tonight which they are advertising as "the country's biggest band you don't know about. Arias, Grammies, platinum record sales, world wide success, but most of the country don't know who they are". Then there is a voice of with one middle aged bloke saying "we're a heavy metal band we aren't supposed to talk about feelings yet here I am talking about mine."

When they revealed the band they are talking about is Parkway Drive I realised it's not that people don't know them it's that we don't want to know them! As for not sharing their feelings, I'm sure that's about all metalcore bands sing about!!

 

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8 hours ago, SurgicalBrute said:

^Yeah...we were taking a little bit about that a few months back. Rumor is it will be smaller, probably going back to using just Rams Head and Soundstage as the venues

Honestly, it's better that way. This year was the first I'd done the Edison lot and didn't think it really added much. Perfectly happy with just the 2 indoor venues.

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1 hour ago, navybsn said:

Honestly, it's better that way. This year was the first I'd done the Edison lot and didn't think it really added much. Perfectly happy with just the 2 indoor venues.

I was actually surprised how well the Rams Head/Soundstage only setup worked over the last couple of years. They'd been doing two outdoor stages for so long, that when that announcement came out that they were changing things, I remember thinking it was going to be a giant clusterfuck. It worked really well though. That being said, I do think if they'd gotten some of those bands that ended up not making it...particularly Dismember and Bloodbath (whatever my personal opinion on the latter may be), Edison would have probably felt like more of a necessity.

13 minutes ago, Dead1 said:

Anyone else think new Autopsy is pretty awesome?

Yes...probably the best they've been for a few albums now

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