Anyone else stopped hunting for new music?

[TheBloodstained]

I think new music has a tendency to find me, but admittedly I do spend a lot of time on this forum, and also watching YouTube videos with various musicians, so I guess that's why. Every now and then I might sit down and try to dig for something new and niche myself, but it has become a rare occurrence.

I follow and listen to A LOT of artists as it is, so I rarely crave the hunt for new stuff anymore. I guess my hunt has become more focused on rare vinyl releases from my favorite artists instead, and I'm perfectly happy with that.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

We’re so close to “all metal is just Black Sabbath sped up or slowed down” bullshit, lol. Completely inaccurate and dismissive because what was “fast and heavy” when someone was a kid is basically mall rock now.

Eh, I think it's gotten a lot cheaper and easier to get "fast" or "heavy" to translate to recorded music these days, but I don't think there's be a huge shift in what's actually either in a very, very long time. Very little heavy music from the late 80's was even remotely decently recorded and even less has survived, but back then, live, it was "extreme" and I don't think anything very recent is specifically more so.

I think you're falling into the trap of popular music defining the times. I grew up in the 80's and 90's and yeah, Hair Metal was on the radio and stuff, but there was more music out there.

 

[GunpointMetal]

Eh, I think it's gotten a lot cheaper and easier to get "fast" or "heavy" to translate to recorded music these days, but I don't think there's be a huge shift in what's actually either in a very, very long time. Very little heavy music from the late 80's was even remotely decently recorded and even less has survived, but back then, live, it was "extreme" and I don't think anything very recent is specifically more so.

I think you're falling into the trap of popular music defining the times. I grew up in the 80's and 90's and yeah, Hair Metal was on the radio and stuff, but there was more music out there.

Nah, bands like Archspire, Cytotoxin, Humanity’s Last Breath, etc etc etc, imo, would still be emotionally and sonically heavier/faster than early death metal/thrash/grind stuff by a mile. Putting an early morbid Angel record or something through a Dave Otero production isn’t going to make it more brutal than Cattle Decapitation. The “mall rock” joke was an obvious exaggeration. I find it extremely annoying when old heads are like “you want something brutal?!?!” and then put on Blessed are the Sick and then says something dismissive when somebody plays something from the last decade that is easily more “brutal” by any measurement.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Nah, bands like Archspire, Cytotoxin, Humanity’s Last Breath, etc etc etc, imo, would still be emotionally and sonically heavier/faster than early death metal/thrash/grind stuff by a mile. Putting an early morbid Angel record or something through a Dave Otero production isn’t going to make it more brutal than Cattle Decapitation. The “mall rock” joke was an obvious exaggeration. I find it extremely annoying when old heads are like “you want something brutal?!?!” and then put on Blessed are the Sick and then says something dismissive when somebody plays something from the last decade that is easily more “brutal” by any measurement.

Cattle Decapitation is like 25 years old, that's a generation in itself. It's also a good example because thier production until like 10 years ago was fairly awful compared to how polished it is now.

Archspire is not an ounce more heavy or much faster than Beneath the Massacre was like 20 years ago. A lot more technical, and more listenable probably.

Yeah, niche Tech Death is heavier than Top 40 in 1976, but I think that's such an extreme vs. what was considered heavy in the same general style just 20 or 30 years ago.

 

[SalsaWood]

I've heard a lot about "my" music (Metallica and the likes from those times) being nothing new that wasn't invented before. Anytime I tried to bring the top quality music to the table (like Ayreon) it's been usually disregarded (and commented "Pink Floyd's already done that", ..you know that shit). Why would I want to be one of those ignorants now?

What they really means is that these things have never been worth doing. Cranking the gain and trying to set the air on fire isn't exactly the quantum jump everyone seems to think it is. I think everyone needs a giant dose of GTF over themselves and stop caring what other people think.

I don't actually believe I have to say this, but I will for the sake of dignity. Me explaining the basis for another person or group's opinion doesn't by default mean I agree with it myself. I could just ignore this asinine discussion like I normally do around here- see your local politician for examples.

 

[GunpointMetal]

Cattle Decapitation is like 25 years old, that's a generation in itself. It's also a good example because thier production until like 10 years ago was fairly awful compared to how polished it is now.

Archspire is not an ounce more heavy or much faster than Beneath the Massacre was like 20 years ago. A lot more technical, and more listenable probably.

Yeah, niche Tech Death is heavier than Top 40 in 1976, but I think that's such an extreme vs. what was considered heavy in the same general style just 20 or 30 years ago.

My point is, dismissing modern stuff because you heard something else first is stupid. As stupid as saying "all heavy metal is just black sabbath sped up or slowed down". There's nothing wrong with liking the music you heard first, but if you can't be objective about it, stay out of the conversation. (not you, specifically, in general. I don't wanna hear another dude with a gray beard and a DEATH tee shirt complaining that heavy metal sucks now without any possible reason for saying that other than they don't listen to modern shit and their atrophied brain can't keep up)
Edit: I'll take BtM over most of the stuff I listed, their last release was awesome

 

[MaxOfMetal]

My point is, dismissing modern stuff because you heard something else first is stupid. As stupid as saying "all heavy metal is just black sabbath sped up or slowed down". There's nothing wrong with liking the music you heard first, but if you can't be objective about it, stay out of the conversation. (not you, specifically, in general. I don't wanna hear another dude with a gray beard and a DEATH tee shirt complaining that heavy metal sucks now without any possible reason for saying that other than they don't listen to modern shit and their atrophied brain can't keep up)
Edit: I'll take BtM over most of the stuff I listed, their last release was awesome

Totally.

You see that with pretty much everything though, folks stick to what's familiar and the longer they stay in the bubble the more out of touch they get the more "different therefore bad" starts to set in.

That's sort of why I like listening to new stuff still. Do I like it all? Usually not, but it's interesting to see new trends and how the old stuff gets played with and reworked.

I think there's this notion that everything new you (not you, you get it) hear has to be amazing or life changing. Like if it's not your new favorite band it should be passed over.

 

[cult-leader-of-djent]

I still love checking out new bands. I'll give any band a shot but, if the drums aren't good, if the guitar tones are muddy af, and if the lyrics are paper thin and shallow as a 2ft pool then I ain't in. I approach it like Simon Cowell on American Idol at the point.

Lorna Shore is god awful. The dramatic "soap opera" breakdowns can suck it. And Spirit Box is flat as a board there ain't nothing you can do with it.

 

[Randy]

Anyone else stopped hunting for new music?

I'm having the opposite issue. I hate listening to anything older than a year or two. It's actually a legitimate problem because I'll find a new band I dig and I'll checkout the rest of their catalog, and if anything's older than like 2019 I'm like ehhh about listening to it.

 

[budda]

I'm having the opposite issue. I hate listening to anything older than a year or two. It's actually a legitimate problem because I'll find a new band I dig and I'll checkout the rest of their catalog, and if anything's older than like 2019 I'm like ehhh about listening to it.

I get this.

When i check out friends recs, if its early or later from a larger catalogue I will have trouble checking out the opposing end under my own volition.

I think Cave in is great. I think antenna and jupiter are incredible albums. I mostly listen to heavy pendulum, possibly because its “my” album from them instead of something I was told to check out and study.

 

[Randy]

I get this.

When i check out friends recs, if its early or later from a larger catalogue I will have trouble checking out the opposing end under my own volition.

I think Cave in is great. I think antenna and jupiter are incredible albums. I mostly listen to heavy pendulum, possibly because its “my” album from them instead of something I was told to check out and study.

That's definitely a huge factor in it for me, yeah.

TBH, I think living through hair metal, grunge, nu-metal, djent, deathcore, tech-death etc. I'm so used to the dynamic of a half-dozen or so genre-pioneering artists and then a bunch of copycat white noise every couple years. When I start probing a new band based on a new release, I'll look back in the catalog and it's often poorly produced, under-developed writingwise or it's somewhere in that genre white noise.

Listening to something new-new always turns my ear.