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What is the best hypothetical metal supergroup you could think of?


AdamGavriely

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A few weeks ago, when I was on the bus listening to a Death album (I think it was Sound of Perseverance), a good friend of mine called me and somehow the conversation rolled on to 'What would have happened if Chuck Shuldiner, Cliff Burton and John Bonham would have cooperated to a supergroup'.

Later I thought that maybe Mike Portnoy would make a better fit with Chuck and Cliff than John Bonham, but I would like to hear your thoughts about the subject.

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  • AdamGavriely changed the title to What is the best hypothetical metal supergroup you could think of?

It really all depends on whether you want your little dead man supergroup to play death metal or blues rock. Cliff could probably swing either way, but I reckon either Chuck or Bonzo's gotta go. Mike Portnoy's still alive so he won't work. If you're looking for a dead virtuoso metal drummer consider Sean Reinert formerly of 90's/00's progressive metal band Cynic. If he's no good then Nick Menza (Megadick '89 - '98) is probably available too. If you want to go in a more stripped down old school metal direction there's always Philthy Animal Taylor of Motörhead fame.

 

 

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40 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

It really all depends on whether you want your little dead man supergroup to play death metal or blues rock.

The thing is that there are so many options for different genres you can form a supergroup around, so your favorite guitarist, bassist, and drummer won't necessarily fit together if they play different genres. Although different vibes between band members can create really interesting music.

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4 hours ago, AdamGavriely said:

The thing is that there are so many options for different genres you can form a supergroup around, so your favorite guitarist, bassist, and drummer won't necessarily fit together if they play different genres. Although different vibes between band members can create really interesting music.

I'm sure there are a lot of musicians who would surprise you by being good at genres other than the ones they're best known for playing. Because most of them are music fans to begin with, that's why they wanted to start playing in the first place. And music fans tend to listen to lots of different things, not just one sub-genre. 

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5 hours ago, JonoBlade said:

All of The Experience is dead, so there's your supergroup right there. Although maybe not metal enough.

Of the living, I'd like Nuno Bettencourt to play with John Tardy, Dave Lombardo and Geezer. It would probably be a hot mess, but I'd buy a ticket.

Figured if not Bonzo then most rock guys might wanna go with Neil Peart.

But the Jimi Hendrix Experience, yeah, hadn't even thought of them because that's like the 60's man.

I used to post with a San Diego surfer dude who went by "Doctor Metal" and was obsessed with Jimi Hendrix, had like hundreds of bootlegs n shit. He talked about Jimi and the Experience almost daily, you'd think I might remember their names. The name Mitch Mitchell rings a bell he was one of them I think, but I don't know if he was on bass or drums.

Shame all the Sabbs are still alive (for the purposes of this exercize) because Ward and Butler do make one hell of a rythym section.

No idea who Nuno Bettencourt might be. Sounds like an Italian tennis player.

All due respect to Jimi and the blues, but if we're leaving dead bands intact then I would take the classic Motörhead lineup, that's a no-brainer.

Or we could leave Bonzo and Cliff in place, give Chuck the axe (pun intended) and bring in Stevie Ray Vaughn guitar and vox. Sounds like a fair dinkum blues rock supergroup to me.

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1 minute ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

The name Mitch Mitchell rings a bell he was one of them I think, but I don't know if he was on bass or drums.

Shame all the Sabbs are still alive (for the purposes of this exercize) because Ward and Butler do make one hell of a rythym section.

No idea who Nuno Bettencourt might be. Sounds like an Italian tennis player.

All due respect to Jimi and the blues, but if we're leaving dead bands intact then I would take the classic Motörhead lineup, that's a no-brainer.

Noel Redding was bass, Mitch on drums. But, yes, you make a good point that all of classic Motörhead is dead. I'd still take Hendrix, but Lemmy is a good call.

To clarify, I reckon Jimi went off the rails and was never as good as in the original Experience. So I wouldn't put him in a supergroup with anyone else. 

Nuno is the guitar player from Extreme. Recently, some in the guitar playing community were losing their shit over the guitar solo in the new Extreme song. It is pretty cool, and it is fairly rare these days to have a solid song which rips into a genuinely epic solo. 

Not for goats. [this is the bit where you look up the single Rise and tell me it is shit and Van Halen was better, and Van Halen was shit too].

Oh, how often I have never thought to myself "it's a shame all the Sabbs are still alive."

 

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24 minutes ago, JonoBlade said:

Noel Redding was bass, Mitch on drums. But, yes, you make a good point that all of classic Motörhead is dead. I'd still take Hendrix, but Lemmy is a good call.

To clarify, I reckon Jimi went off the rails and was never as good as in the original Experience. So I wouldn't put him in a supergroup with anyone else. 

Nuno is the guitar player from Extreme. Recently, some in the guitar playing community were losing their shit over the guitar solo in the new Extreme song. It is pretty cool, and it is fairly rare these days to have a solid song which rips into a genuinely epic solo. 

Not for goats. [this is the bit where you look up the single Rise and tell me it is shit and Van Halen was better, and Van Halen was shit too].

Oh, how often I have never thought to myself "it's a shame all the Sabbs are still alive."

 

I remember having an Extreme album about 100 years ago that I think I only ever played like once. But I'm not one given to learning the names of the dudes in the bands I listen to. Don't usually bother to learn the song titles either for that matter, forget about lyrics. I'm a simple man, I just come for the riffs.

You gussed it. I'm not one of those big rah-rah Eddie VH guys. I guess I'm still pissed at him for wasting his immense talent in a band that played stupid throw away pop songs.

I've gotta say I enjoyed the era of the rock guitar hero well enough when I was younger (Jimmy Page was my guy, used to play a lot of air guitar in the mirror to Jimmy's solos as a pre-teen) but I can't say that I miss it. I don't seek out superior musicianship and epic guitar solos when looking for metal to listen to. WIth extreme metal it's all about riffs and energy and atmosphere and attitude. If they can throw in an economical well constructed 10 second lead break or some little fills and flourishes every now and then that's enough guitar gymnastics for me. I don't long for 3 minute guitar solos in black and death metal songs. Let these guitar players wank behind closed doors like the rest of us.

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39 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

I remember having an Extreme album about 100 years ago that I think I only ever played like once. But I'm not one given to learning the names of the dudes in the bands I listen to. Don't usually bother to learn the song titles either for that matter, forget about lyrics. I'm a simple man, I just come for the riffs.

You gussed it. I'm not one of those big rah-rah Eddie VH guys. I guess I'm still pissed at him for wasting his immense talent in a band that played stupid throw away pop songs.

I've gotta say I enjoyed the era of the rock guitar hero well enough when I was younger (Jimmy Page was my guy, used to play a lot of air guitar in the mirror to Jimmy's solos as a pre-teen) but I can't say that I miss it. I don't seek out superior musicianship and epic guitar solos when looking for metal to listen to. WIth extreme metal it's all about riffs and energy and atmosphere and attitude. If they can throw in an economical well constructed 10 second lead break or some little fills and flourishes every now and then that's enough guitar gymnastics for me. I don't long for 3 minute guitar solos in black and death metal songs. Let these guitar players wank behind closed doors like the rest of us.

Neither would I know who most of the guys in bands are I listen to these days. Not even the better known ones. 30 years ago there were a lot less names to remember, so surely everyone knew of Nuno, Gary and the other two that held their lighters up?

I have only heard one Extreme album, III Sides to Every Story. Loved it, but never enough to get the more famous second album. 

Agreed about Edward. Watching his 10 minute solo in a concert bootleg was transcendental, but Van Halen songs were disposable. Extreme on the other hand could write an epic double album that was engaging all the way through. 

I suppose the Tipton/Downing and Smith/Murray double acts were my guitar heroes, and Brian May. But these were all guys in bands with good songs. Your Steve Vais, Satrianis and Yngwies were never my cup of tea.

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54 minutes ago, AdamGavriely said:

I've never said anything about having only dead guys in your supergroup, but I guess we can ride on that.

I just assumed that's what we were doing here since your original proposed lineup of Chuck Shuldiner, Cliff Burton and John Bonham was three very dead guys, all of them gone more than 20 years. I've seen this question many times in the past, people asking what's your all star dead guy band lineup.

I don't normally bother to engage in making hypothetical band lineups of dead guys anyway since I don't believe in any kind of a 'soul' or an 'afterlife' or any 'spiritual' nonsense like that. I believe when you die your light goes out and you'll simply cease to exist in the same way you never existed for millennia before you were born.

But yeah you can absolutely use dudes who are still alive for your hypothetical supergroup, go for it. Or you can mix and match dead guys with the living. Whatever you want kid, it's your thread.

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59 minutes ago, JonoBlade said:

Neither would I know who most of the guys in bands are I listen to these days. Not even the better known ones. 30 years ago there were a lot less names to remember, so surely everyone knew of Nuno, Gary and the other two that held their lighters up?

I have only heard one Extreme album, III Sides to Every Story. Loved it, but never enough to get the more famous second album. 

Agreed about Edward. Watching his 10 minute solo in a concert bootleg was transcendental, but Van Halen songs were disposable. Extreme on the other hand could write an epic double album that was engaging all the way through. 

I suppose the Tipton/Downing and Smith/Murray double acts were my guitar heroes, and Brian May. But these were all guys in bands with good songs. Your Steve Vais, Satrianis and Yngwies were never my cup of tea.

I admired Brian May to a certain extent as a young teen. But again just like Eddie, there's a guy who could have easily been one of the biggest hard rocking guitar heros ever, and yet he chose to stay in a band that mostly wrote silly fluffy little pop songs like Killer Queen and Best Friend that I absolutely detest. I stopped buying Queen albums after Opera because I was pissed off that they were only giving me like one or two hard rockers per album along with a bunch of frilly crap I couldn't stand. It's fine if you like Queen's songs Jon-boy, but I really hate most Queen songs except for the small handfull of their balls-out rockers like Tie Your Mother Down, Fat Bottom Girls, Tenement Funster and Now I'm Here. Don't even get me started on my Another One Bites the Dust rant.

You're right, I agree, it's all about the songs. Virtuoso playing outside of the framework of a song doesn't interest me very much either.

30 - 40 years ago I probably knew a good percentage of the names of the dudes in my favorite bands, but Extreme was never in that top tier category for me.

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3 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

I've seen this question many times in the past, people asking what's your all star dead guy band lineup.

So let's make it a living people band lineup instead of dead ones. There are just too many dead people for this to be difficult. I think that for my living supergroup, I would go with John Petrucci, Mario Duplantier and Scott Clendenin.

Edit: Okay, I just found out that Scott Clendenin died in 2015, so I'll go with Jason Newsted

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1 hour ago, AdamGavriely said:

So let's make it a living people band lineup instead of dead ones. There are just too many dead people for this to be difficult. I think that for my living supergroup, I would go with John Petrucci, Mario Duplantier and Scott Clendenin.

Edit: Okay, I just found out that Scott Clendenin died in 2015, so I'll go with Jason Newsted

 

1 hour ago, AdamGavriely said:

So let's make it a living people band lineup instead of dead ones. There are just too many dead people for this to be difficult. I think that for my living supergroup, I would go with John Petrucci, Mario Duplantier and Scott Clendenin.

Edit: Okay, I just found out that Scott Clendenin died in 2015, so I'll go with Jason Newsted

I'll tell ya kid, I know who Jason Newsted is, but I don't actually know who any of those other three musicans you've just named are, although I do recognize the name John Petrucci and I'm pretty sure he is/was in a band by the nsme of Dream Theater. But I don't know what instrument he plays or anyhing. And besides I hate prog nonsense like Dream Theater, I couldn't make it through one of their albums if you paid me. I'm sure they're all very accomplished and superlative musicians, but that's not something I really care about or look for when I'm choosing what I want to listen to.

I don't generally think of individual metal musicians as separate entities, I think of them in the context of the bands they're in. As I've said, I don't pay close enough attention to know the names of most of the musicians who are in the metal bands I listen to, and in many of my favorite sub-genres they tend to use a lot of silly stage names anyway. All those rock magazine polls I used to see as a young man in the 70's and 80's, where readers would write in and vote for the best guitarist, best bassist, best drummer etc... invariably ended up being pointless popularity contests where most kids would simply vote for all the individual musicians from their favorite band. They should have just made it a who's your favorite band poll and left it at that.

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On 5/25/2023 at 12:35 AM, GoatmasterGeneral said:

I'll tell ya kid, I know who Jason Newsted is, but I don't actually know who any of those other three musicans you've just named are, although I do recognize the name John Petrucci and I'm pretty sure he is/was in a band by the nsme of Dream Theater. But I don't know what instrument he plays or anyhing.

John is the guitarist for DT, Mario Duplantier is the drummer for Gojira, and Scott Clendenin is the bassist for Death from Sound of Perseverance.

My choice of Clendenin is probably because of his cool-quiet charisma and attitude on stage when playing, but his technical abilities are fantastic nonetheless.

Mario Duplantier is simply amazing. Even if you are not a drummer you can appreciate his playing. Just check out this drum solo from 2022:

Mario Duplantier drum solo 2022 "Movement"

 

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26 minutes ago, AdamGavriely said:

John is the guitarist for DT, Mario Duplantier is the drummer for Gojira, and Scott Clendenin is the bassist for Death from Sound of Perseverance.

My choice of Clendenin is probably because of his cool-quiet charisma and attitude on stage when playing, but his technical abilities are fantastic nonetheless.

Mario Duplantier is simply amazing. Even if you are not a drummer you can appreciate his playing. Just check out this drum solo from 2022

Well it's no wonder I didn't know who any of those guys were! I can't stand DT or Gojira, and I only listen to the first 3 Death albums occasionally. I listen to a lot of music, but I don't listen to much of anything that could even loosely be described as progressive.

I'll be honest I don't get that deep into drumming. Drumming is definitely not something I ever focus on, I just want the drummer to show up and keep the time, that's all, I don't care about drum solos or speed or technique or anything. The only time I'll notice drumming is when it's absent, like if the dude drops his sticks or falls off his stool or has a heart attack mid song or something. I can't tell a good drummer from a shitty drummer. I focus on the guitar riffs.

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^ That would be a wet dream for sites like Blabbermouth and Metal Injection.

Gary could start a GoFundMe to get the band rolling.

James could cry about his childhood and how his parents ruined his life.

Dave could just prop himself on a drum stool and waffle about pointless shit for hours.

David could drag on and on about how much better the music they haven't created is better than Megadeth

And Joey could make excuses for the band not playing while singing some Journey songs to keep people entertained!

 

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50 minutes ago, AdamGavriely said:

Well, that's all it takes to listen to Metallica haha (I'm kidding okay? Don't come out at me 😅)

Lars is the perfect example. I've heard lots of people say he's a terrible drummer. But I don't know, whatever he's doing on that stool back there while making all those stupid faces it sounds a lot like drumming to me man. What is it that people want from him? (besides not being a fucking dick if course, I'm talking as far as his drumming) I mean no one's gonna confuse me for a Metallica fan, but my issues with their music have nothing to do with the drumming.

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1 hour ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Lars is the perfect example. I've heard lots of people say he's a terrible drummer. But I don't know, whatever he's doing on that stool back there while making all those stupid faces it sounds a lot like drumming to me man. What is it that people want from him? (besides not being a fucking dick if course, I'm talking as far as his drumming) I mean no one's gonna confuse me for a Metallica fan, but my issues with their music have nothing to do with the drumming.

Lars was good at their few first albums, but since the 2000s he is just getting worse and worse. ...And Justice For All was his best album in terms of everything, but his drumming was never dynamic or super-creative in any possible way.

I hear a lot of people saying that his low present drumming abilities are justified because of his age, but he started to suck long before he turned 50. I understand why non-drummers don't really understand why he's considered to be a bad drummer, but any good drummer pretty easily can. Lars is absolutely fine at keeping time, and when he was young he was great at speed and tightness, but he was never good at creativity, dynamics, or coordination. Again, AJFA was his best album, but he was never a "great" drummer.

But that's okay. As long as you enjoy Lars's drumming it shouldn't bother you.

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