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Regional Scenes/Sounds VS. Individuals

BlutAusNerd

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BlutAusNerd Newbie

BlutAusNerd

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This thread is about the pros and cons of regional scenes and sounds, as opposed to bands that are more geographically isolated for the music they play. Some people may prefer a sound that has developed across several bands, like Bay Area Thrash, but then a band may come from a smaller scene or some place not known for that type of music and be totally original and play outstanding music. I think that it can give you a general idea of what a band might sound like and the notion that it should at least be a pretty good album, like Swedish death metal or Brazilian black/death/thrash, but I personally find that some of the best albums come from outside of those scenes. Thoughts?

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Iceni Newbie

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Re: Regional Scenes/Sounds VS. Individuals My favorite bands come from Germany, Sweden and the USA, generally...France seems to have a small tech-death community that's produced a fair amount of awesomeness. Otherwise, I really can't generalize. I'd say there are about 3 bands per country that I'll listen to, on average. But honestly, there are some really great bands that come from places that haven't got that much of a scene at all. There's next to no metal in Tunisia, and yet they've got Myrath. Taiwan's not too metal but Chthonic made quite a name for themselves (and they're probably my favorite black metal band, not that I listen to much black metal at all). All I can really say is there are some scenes I don't like. Generally I don't like anything out of South America.

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RelentlessOblivion Grand Master

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Re: Regional Scenes/Sounds VS. Individuals really what first got me into metal was that it was so different from anything I'd heard before, honestly until I was about 12 the heaviest thing I'd heard was AC/DC so when I first heard Pantera - Cemetary Gates (the very first metal song I ever heard) and Dime went into that riff I freaked out so at first all metal seemed like something original and unique. that's the feeling I look for more then anything when I'm listening to metal, that's also what started turning me away from black and death metal because the bands I discovered all sounded pretty much the same, it's odd actually because I listen to bands from just about everywhere, UK, Europe, US, Brazil etc but for some reason haven't found much in Australia, then again I'm probably not looking in the right places anyway for me metal is about something that sounds unique and different, and I think you can get that both from regional scenes and the more individualistic bands

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NTNR Newbie

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Re: Regional Scenes/Sounds VS. Individuals Russia has a good Metal scene. I've heard a lot of original material from that country over the years, from Doom to Black. South America seems to be stepping things up as well. Europe and America have always had the bulk of my favorites however. They both have great regional scenes/sounds with great, oddball, individuals.

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RelentlessOblivion Grand Master

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Re: Regional Scenes/Sounds VS. Individuals as I've already said I don't focus on the regional scenes or indvidual sounds exclusively, I look for something that excites me, that makes me think yeah that's different and I like it, I'm very happy that for the moment I'm having those moments a lot since it means my iPod has gone from having about five hundred songs on it to being completely full at nine hundred meaning I need a second one

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Iceni Newbie

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Re: Regional Scenes/Sounds VS. Individuals

Ever heard Angra? I would be surprised if a power/prog guy like you didn't enjoy their music.
Yeah, but I don't like them. Maybe I just haven't heard enough, but most of what I've heard from them is too cheesy for my tastes.
yeah South America has some fucking awesome bands' date=' really shouldn't overlook bands just for their geographical location Iceni[/quote'] You've confused cause and effect. I don't actually avoid South American bands, I'm just saying that generally I don't like them too much. Now, NTNR introduced me to Mar De Grises and I was pleasantly surprised. I also like Almah (Brazil) and Ch'aska (Peru).
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Re: Regional Scenes/Sounds VS. Individuals

Yeah' date=' but I don't like them. Maybe I just haven't heard enough, but most of what I've heard from them is too cheesy for my tastes.[/quote'] Angra isn't cheesy anymore. Everything after Edu joined is just awesome!
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BlutAusNerd Newbie

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Re: Regional Scenes/Sounds VS. Individuals I find that I tend to gravitate towards smaller, less popular scenes in general, as it seems that the quality ratio is a bit higher overall. There are still great albums coming from large scenes, like Swedish death metal, but there are a large amount of albums flowing forth from them and they're not all of uniform quality. For example, Finnish death metal and Norwegian death metal were much smaller scenes, but pretty much all of the albums they produced were excellent. There are also a lot of great bands from strange places based on their sound, but I tend not to find out about them or seek them out as readily for whatever reason.

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Iceni Newbie

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Re: Regional Scenes/Sounds VS. Individuals

I know you are good with making recommendations; could you tell me what some of the best stuff is? Anyhow, something else interesting: it seems Sweden is best known for its death metal. To be honest, though, they're a great place for any keyboard-intensive metal - 7days, Darkwater, Divinefire, Harmony, Narnia, Sabaton, Seventh Wonder, etc.
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Re: Regional Scenes/Sounds VS. Individuals

Funny, I tend to do the opposite. If I find some band is from New Zealand, Sri Lanka or Botswana I'm very motivated to find out what they sound like to see if they're any good.
Not sure why I don't do that, I guess you just don't know what you're getting. It could be really original and cool, or it could be a 7th rate knockoff of something else, or it could even be mallcore masquerading as their definition of death/thrash/black metal.
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Re: Regional Scenes/Sounds VS. Individuals

Anyhow' date=' something else interesting: it seems Sweden is best known for its death metal. To be honest, though, they're a great place for any keyboard-intensive metal - 7days, Darkwater, Divinefire, Harmony, Narnia, Sabaton, Seventh Wonder, etc.[/quote'] Looks like I forgot to address this point. Sweden does seem to have a lot of bands that feature keyboards, but I've always thought of Finland as the capitol of keyboard metal. They boast a large number of melodeath, melodic black metal, and funeral doom bands with keyboards, and I can't really think of any Finnish power metal band without keyboards. They also have a great deal of gothic metal, which pretty much can't exist without keyboards.
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