Burning Hot Metal Takes

[Neon_Knight_]

Not too controversial, but Opeth should have released all of their non-metal material under the guise of a side-project, because it's so far removed from what they built their reputation on...or have changed their name to acknowledge the departure. Seeing them live and barely hearing many "Opeth" music is essentially false advertising.

 

[Neon_Knight_]

The only band more overrated than Death is Ghost. There. I said it.

Ghost is more overrated than anything ever. Even more so than Ferrero Rocher and Fender!

 

[owlexifry]

Sun eater is such a damn good album. I was just listening to it the other day. The writing, production, instrumentation, vocals are all just stellar.

just listened to this album last night. absolutely agree.
holy crap did this fly under the radar.

 

[Strobe]

The lack of hooks, dynamic changes, interesting melodies, rhythm/tempo changes, or even a fucking guitar solo in whole swathes of metal music just suuuuuucks. It's like listening to a vacuum cleaner.

 

[MFB]

That's a funny way of spelling Archspire

Lolno.

Archspire is like someone unironically listened to those "every ______ song at once" video and thought, "yeah, that should be a band!" If every member is playing their instrument at 10, then there's no dynamics, it's a wall of sound; and you fucks keep complaining about albums being walls of sound until they came along and suddenly it's cool.

 

[M3CHK1LLA]

fixed it for you.
Vektor, Lich King, Havok, Warbringer, Kreator, Annihilator, Testament, Exodus are all sick af.

let's go ahead and add flotsam & jetsam, death angel, and sod/mod to that list...

 

[nickgray]

Lolno.

To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Archpire.

If every member is playing their instrument at 10, then there's no dynamics, it's a wall of sound

But seriously, have you actually listened to Archspire? Not a 30 second clip, but a whole album (they're short), and not as a background listen?

and you fucks keep complaining about albums being walls of sound until they came along and suddenly it's cool.

I'll have you know I'm pissed off about Bleed the Future's production, I don't know whose bright idea it was to brickwall a complex tech death album so that it sounds like some random crap from 00s. Relentless Mutation is just alright, it didn't need to be limited as much either, but it's servicable, unlike Bleed the Future.

 

[owlexifry]

Lolno.

Archspire is like someone unironically listened to those "every ______ song at once" video and thought, "yeah, that should be a band!" If every member is playing their instrument at 10, then there's no dynamics, it's a wall of sound; and you fucks keep complaining about albums being walls of sound until they came along and suddenly it's cool.

massive agree on this one.
the band is technically brilliant. i want to like them.
but for all the points raised above, it's hard to actually 'enjoy' listening to it, it's just so fatiguing to get through it all

 

[TheBlackBard]

Ghost is more overrated than anything ever. Even more so than Ferrero Rocher and Fender!

They can't be all that overrated if half the people alive hate them.

Also, most reductionist takes in this thread saying "this band is just a weak version of this band" are inaccurate.

 

[works0fheart]

(Winds of Creation is a masterpiece).

Yes. Super underrated it seems.

Also Archspire is sick, idk what y'all are smoking.

My hot take of the day: Kirk's solos on the first 5 Metallica albums are actually pretty good and fit the songs well. I guarantee you Metallica was the intro to metal for over half of this forum and they enjoyed the fuck out of those solos before growing into elitists and parroting how much he sucks (admittedly he was pretty bad from the 90s onwards). He may be based in dad-blues licks but he had a good sense of melody. Was he Marty? No, and if he were it wouldn't have fit the music as well.

 

[nickgray]

My hot take of the day

Memes aside, the first four albums are legendary and are one of the most influential metal albums of all time. I'd maybe go as far as putting Metallica right after Black Sabbath in terms of importance. Yes, there's Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, but Metallica's impact is really deep and wide. Which means both Lars and Kirk did a great job. Yes, even Lars.

 

[Bloody_Inferno]

I usually don't like participating in these kind of threads, but eh, I'll bite.

Jason Becker ran circles around Marty Friedman every single time they recorded a song together.

Most high gain pickups suck. Now that there's plenty of high gain amps available, they've become redundant and there's no real point in having them anymore unless you want to sound like mush.

Tuning lower doesn't necessarily mean heavier. Exhibit A: Acacia Strain's laughable cover of War Pigs.

Every vocals on djent and tech death sounds like a distant tacked on afterthought since djent guitarists will hog as much musical and sonic space as much as possible. All the more when the singer starts screaming over it all. I'll go as far as tech death doesn't need any vocals at all.

Michael Schenker's work with the Scorpions is overrated. His absence on Lovedrive would not have made a difference, and was made apparent when Blackout came out.

John Paul Jones is the most talented member of Zeppelin bar none.

The whole bedroom self produced musician trend has bred the isolationism that lacks any kind of collaboration or quality control, their music suffers for it. Even funnier when the muso becomes so delusional of their own music they end up not finishing it. You're better off releasing something imperfect and completed but if you refuse to work with established boundaries in fear of compromising your artistic vision, well.... yes I would like fries with that thanks.

The Boss DS1 is still a great pedal, even for metal.

All the metal guitars recorded in a mechanic, super edited, quantised is fine if you want that sound. But it feels like cowardice fearing mistakes. All the small string scrapes, miniscule differences in pick attack or note fretting, these 'mistakes' are what makes the guitar sounding organic. But by all means if you want that sound, you can always ditch the guitar altogether and just use a guitar pro midi into an amp sim.

Rush's Power WIndows is a much better album than Hold Your Fire, Caress Of Steel and the self titled debut.

Use Your Illusion should've never been a double album. And even then, combine the best songs together still doesn't hold a candle to Appetite.

You don't need a custom guitar. More often than not, a decent production guitar (with mods or not) is enough to last you a while.

Post Heritage Opeth is best Opeth.

Most of the thrash bands after the big 4 are releasing their best material now than their heyday. Death Angel's albums from Killing Season onwards have been great. Testament doesn't count since they're always consistently great. Even their not so greats like Demonic and Brotherhood Of The Snake is better than most thrash band's best albums.

Speaking of Testament, Testament doing death metal is more heavier and interesting than most death metal bands.

Hobbyists despite having experience with gear you wish to buy are the last people you should be seeking advice from with said gear. Nothing beats trying out the gear yourself.

Being full metalhead style and/or acting like a closed minded 'metal or nuttin' attitude is embarrassing for anyone after 40.

Dehumanizer is the best Black Sabbath album.

 

[youngthrasher9]

I usually don't like participating in these kind of threads, but eh, I'll bite.

Jason Becker ran circles around Marty Friedman every single time they recorded a song together.

Most high gain pickups suck. Now that there's plenty of high gain amps available, they've become redundant and there's no real point in having them anymore unless you want to sound like mush.

Tuning lower doesn't necessarily mean heavier. Exhibit A: Acacia Strain's laughable cover of War Pigs.

Every vocals on djent and tech death sounds like a distant tacked on afterthought since djent guitarists will hog as much musical and sonic space as much as possible. All the more when the singer starts screaming over it all. I'll go as far as tech death doesn't need any vocals at all.

Michael Schenker's work with the Scorpions is overrated. His absence on Lovedrive would not have made a difference, and was made apparent when Blackout came out.

John Paul Jones is the most talented member of Zeppelin bar none.

The whole bedroom self produced musician trend has bred the isolationism that lacks any kind of collaboration or quality control, their music suffers for it. Even funnier when the muso becomes so delusional of their own music they end up not finishing it. You're better off releasing something imperfect and completed but if you refuse to work with established boundaries in fear of compromising your artistic vision, well.... yes I would like fries with that thanks.

The Boss DS1 is still a great pedal, even for metal.

All the metal guitars recorded in a mechanic, super edited, quantised is fine if you want that sound. But it feels like cowardice fearing mistakes. All the small string scrapes, miniscule differences in pick attack or note fretting, these 'mistakes' are what makes the guitar sounding organic. But by all means if you want that sound, you can always ditch the guitar altogether and just use a guitar pro midi into an amp sim.

Rush's Power WIndows is a much better album than Hold Your Fire, Caress Of Steel and the self titled debut.

Use Your Illusion should've never been a double album. And even then, combine the best songs together still doesn't hold a candle to Appetite.

You don't need a custom guitar. More often than not, a decent production guitar (with mods or not) is enough to last you a while.

Post Heritage Opeth is best Opeth.

Most of the thrash bands after the big 4 are releasing their best material now than their heyday. Death Angel's albums from Killing Season onwards have been great. Testament doesn't count since they're always consistently great. Even their not so greats like Demonic and Brotherhood Of The Snake is better than most thrash band's best albums.

Speaking of Testament, Testament doing death metal is more heavier and interesting than most death metal bands.

Hobbyists despite having experience with gear you wish to buy are the last people you should be seeking advice from with said gear. Nothing beats trying out the gear yourself.

Being full metalhead style and/or acting like a closed minded 'metal or nuttin' attitude is embarrassing for anyone after 40.

Dehumanizer is the best Black Sabbath album.

I agree with everything here except the opeth and dehumanizer thing. And I really like dehumanizer.

 

[Neon_Knight_]

The whole bedroom self produced musician trend has bred the isolationism that lacks any kind of collaboration or quality control, their music suffers for it. Even funnier when the muso becomes so delusional of their own music they end up not finishing it. You're better off releasing something imperfect and completed but if you refuse to work with established boundaries in fear of compromising your artistic vision, well.... yes I would like fries with that thanks.

You were thinking of Jari Mäenpää as you typed this right?

Dehumanizer is the best Black Sabbath album.

I wouldn't say best, but most underrated and most overlooked.

 

[Spaced Out Ace]

The lack of hooks, dynamic changes, interesting melodies, rhythm/tempo changes, or even a fucking guitar solo in whole swathes of metal music just suuuuuucks. It's like listening to a vacuum cleaner.

Agreed.

 

[Bloody_Inferno]

You were thinking of Jari Mäenpää as you typed this right?

Actually, it was this nugget of a thread, but Wintersun also applies.

 

[Neon_Knight_]

They can't be all that overrated if half the people alive hate them.

Also, most reductionist takes in this thread saying "this band is just a weak version of this band" are inaccurate.

The other half of people alive seem to think they're the best thing ever, so yes they can haha!

Their stage aesthetic has somehow led people to believe they're playing metal, even though they're clearly not (not playing metal obviously doesn't make them bad, but this shows how much people's view of the band is warped by the aesthetic). Equally, it somehow makes people think the music is far better than it is. Ditch the costumes etc. and their reputation would be limited to "Swedish rock band with one catchy song".

 

[CanserDYI]

My hot take is Midwest emo is better than metal. Fight me about it.

 

[gunch]

They're great, but so are Suffocation, Spawn of Possession, Cryptopsy, Gorguts, Decapitated, Nile, Origin etc.

Btw I know some of those bands have released mediocre / awful albums, but I'm talking about their early / peak sound (Winds of Creation is a masterpiece).

Most of those are bands that were around before tech death as a sub genre was defined.

I think Epitaph is the benchmark for what a tech death album should be.
Edit:
In the moment I forgot about early tech death like Atheist and Pestilence. I’m just saying Epitaph is a top 5 in the sub genre at least

 

[BlackMastodon]

Being full metalhead style and/or acting like a closed minded 'metal or nuttin' attitude is embarrassing for anyone after 40.

I'd take this a step further and say that it's embarrassing for anyone over 20.