Burning Hot Metal Takes

[MFB]

I was a huuuuge Devin fan back from like 2006-2011, but basically everything after Addicted wasn't for me. Weirdly enough that's basically half his catalogue now. I'm happy Devin is enjoying much bigger success though, and happy that his success has let him play huge live shows with set lists I never would have thought could happen back in 2006.

Yeah, I remember enjoying his material up to Addicted! but then after that it sort of petered off and seemed like he was becoming a more mainstream Buckethead. He's got songs here and there I might listen to, but overall? Eh.

 

[mmr007]

IDK. I couldn't really listen to either of those albums. To me, AC/DC built their career up to Back in Black, and then, after that, everything they released sounded kind of the same as whatever they had previously released. They had their little blip at the turn of the 80s/90s decade with "Who Made Who," "Thunderstruck," and "Moneytalks," but, if we are going to be honest, those songs also really didn't introduce us to anything new from the band. At least Ballbreaker had a little more play in the tempo of songs and took the lyrics into new cringey directions instead of the same old cringey topics. It still sounded 90% the same as post-Back in Black AC/DC, though.

If someone has a difficult time listening to post Bon Scott ACDC I can't argue because I'm racing up that hill faster than anyone. I never bought an ACDC album past Fly and find their music unlistenable at that point...and I detest Thunderstruck. However, Powerage and Highway to Hell I believe are two of the greatest hard rock albums in history and I attribute most of that to Bon making the most out of the repetitive E,A and G chords he was given to work with. My hot take was only that for all the praise Back in Black gets from ACDC fans, musically it is very dull compared to FOTW or as was mentioned, FOTS

 

[bostjan]

If someone has a difficult time listening to post Bon Scott ACDC I can't argue because I'm racing up that hill faster than anyone. I never bought an ACDC album past Fly and find their music unlistenable at that point...and I detest Thunderstruck. However, Powerage and Highway to Hell I believe are two of the greatest hard rock albums in history and I attribute most of that to Bon making the most out of the repetitive E,A and G chords he was given to work with. My hot take was only that for all the praise Back in Black gets from ACDC fans, musically it is very dull compared to FOTW or as was mentioned, FOTS

I guess, maybe a little...

But the first two songs on FotW are super stereotypical ACDC songs, just with shittier production quality and weird reverb.

Fly on the Wall chords - A ... A ... ( A G D G ) x∞ Drums go thumpa thumpa thumpa, bass goes dum dum dum just like every other ACDC song
Shake Your Foundation - Typical Angus lick with higher power chord voicings over a pedal tone, then chorus G and D chords some drums and bass as usual
First Blood at least starts off different, but then just shifts into a typical ACDC bass and drum vamp with minimal open Malcolm chords for the verse. Some weird chords for a second in the prechorus, but the chorus is still your typical ACDC big open chord chorus.

I mean, that's obviously not the entire album, but if you didn't skip the first two songs that are 100% typical ACDC filler, you get rewarded with something slightly different, and the rest of the album continues with mostly just standard ACDC filler songs just with weird reverb on the vocals and every once in a while a guitar riff that sounds like it might not be ACDC.

If you love it, more power to you, but whatever logic you try to use to justify loving it more than Razor's Edge or whatever other Johnson-era ACDC is probably going to be inconsistent upon any level of scrutiny. All ACDC albums since 1980 have sounded like the same damned thing, which is why staunch fans love them and fairweather fans listen to Back in Black and pretend that the band retired after that. It's not like FotW and FotS were their Load and Reload albums by any stretch of the imagination. Most people treat them as thought they are ACDC's most forgettable albums because they kind of are.

 

[GunpointMetal]

Extreme Music Post-2000 > >>> > Extreme Music Pre-2000
Deathcore is more interesting and heavier than death metal.
Tech death is better with synths.

 

[michael_bolton]

It's not like FotW and FotS were their Load and Reload albums by any stretch of the imagination. Most people treat them as thought they are ACDC's most forgettable albums because they kind of are.

The way I see it - FOTS is defo a standout being the least "bluesy" and the most "hard rock riff" -oriented album of theirs. There's literally one tune on there - Badlands - that has a caveman blues riff as it's basis - but even then it's done up stylistically totally different and "heavier" compared to e.g. Whole Lotta Rosie with a very similar riff

 

[tian]

I was a huuuuge Devin fan back from like 2006-2011, but basically everything after Addicted wasn't for me. Weirdly enough that's basically half his catalogue now. I'm happy Devin is enjoying much bigger success though, and happy that his success has let him play huge live shows with set lists I never would have thought could happen back in 2006.

Exactly where I'm at. I'm glad that he's happier, more successful and healthier than he's ever been but the duality of those early Devin Townsend Project and Strapping Young Lad albums was really incredible.

Ki has grown on me over time but I don't think I've really listened to anything past that which at this point is a decade's worth of material.

 

[Crash Dandicoot]

Hot takes, you say? Cowabunga it is:

- The people who complain about a guitar lacking stainless frets greatly overestimate their own functional needs of fretwire and should probably just play more guitar. It's a nice feature and I'll take it 10 times out of 10 but the demographic that pretends to have a Master's in Material Engineering are obnoxiously vocal.

- Simply not liking them is one thing, but If you think Floyds are hard to work on or a pain to adjust/restring you probably can't change your own oil - not won't, can't.

- Hipshot hardtails don't hold a candle to Ibanez hardtails and the basic Hipshot design is less comfortable than a Tune-O-Matic.

- Jackson CS's consistency is a shadow of its former self and to actually pay what they're asking for only to get a guitar with a lackluster top and missing a fret is utterly hilarious.

- I'm sure Kiesel makes some great guitars but while that name is on the instrument you couldn't pay me to play one. There's a million other great instruments in the same price bracket that don't advertise that absolute muppet's name.

- Not every pickup Bare Knuckle makes is an 'upgrade'. They have some great winds and some pretty pedestrian ones, too, and you'll be paying too much for both of them.

- A quality quartersawn 1-piece neck is just as reliable and stable as an equivalent laminate neck, and doesn't run the risk of potentially having seam sprout.

 

[Matt08642]

Hot takes, you say? Cowabunga it is:

- The people who complain about a guitar lacking stainless frets greatly overestimate their own functional needs of fretwire and should probably just play more guitar. It's a nice feature and I'll take it 10 times out of 10 but the demographic that pretends to have a Master's in Material Engineering are obnoxiously vocal.

- Simply not liking them is one thing, but If you think Floyds are hard to work on or a pain to adjust/restring you probably can't change your own oil - not won't, can't.

- Hipshot hardtails don't hold a candle to Ibanez hardtails and the basic Hipshot design is less comfortable than a Tune-O-Matic.

- Jackson CS's consistency is a shadow of its former self and to actually pay what they're asking for only to get a guitar with a lackluster top and missing a fret is utterly hilarious.

- I'm sure Kiesel makes some great guitars but while that name is on the instrument you couldn't pay me to play one. There's a million other great instruments in the same price bracket that don't advertise that absolute muppet's name.

- Not every pickup Bare Knuckle makes is an 'upgrade'. They have some great winds and some pretty pedestrian ones, too, and you'll be paying too much for both of them.

- A quality quartersawn 1-piece neck is just as reliable and stable as an equivalent laminate neck, and doesn't run the risk of potentially having seam sprout.

I find a lot of "must have" features are gobbled up by people LARPing as touring musicians, and I mean that in the least asshole-ish way possible (and as someone who is absolutely not a touring/pro musician) but I don't know how else to say it lol. People who play 20 minutes a day saying they "need" SS frets, or "need" truss rod adjustment at the neck heel, or "need" Bareknuckles etc. It's a lot of people who have found a hobby they like, have money, and regurgitate the lines they hear touring musicians say in promotional material. I'm not trying to gatekeep, and if you simply want SS frets or any of that stuff that's totally fine and dandy, but it's hilarious seeing fellow bedroom guitarists talk about how their guitar that's never left the room it was brought home to absolutely requires SS frets, a 9 piece laminate neck, heel truss rod adjustment, BKPs, 20" radius ebony board, hipshot bridge and tuners, etc. or they just can't play it.

 

[BlackMastodon]

Fly on the Wall chords - A ... A ... ( A G D G ) x∞ Drums go thumpa thumpa thumpa, bass goes dum dum dum just like every other ACDC song

They were thiiiiiiiiis close...

 

[GunpointMetal]

I find a lot of "must have" features are gobbled up by people LARPing as touring musicians, and I mean that in the least asshole-ish way possible (and as someone who is absolutely not a touring/pro musician) but I don't know how else to say it lol. People who play 20 minutes a day saying they "need" SS frets, or "need" truss rod adjustment at the neck heel, or "need" Bareknuckles etc. It's a lot of people who have found a hobby they like, have money, and regurgitate the lines they hear touring musicians say in promotional material. I'm not trying to gatekeep, and if you simply want SS frets or any of that stuff that's totally fine and dandy, but it's hilarious seeing fellow bedroom guitarists talk about how their guitar that's never left the room it was brought home to absolutely requires SS frets, a 9 piece laminate neck, heel truss rod adjustment, BKPs, 20" radius ebony board, hipshot bridge and tuners, etc. or they just can't play it.

These are the same dudes that record their demos with whatever the current drum sampler and NDSP plugin du jour is and run everything through EZ mix and then advertise "Mixing and Mastering" services in local FB music groups.

 

[nickgray]

Oh shit, we're doing guitar hot takes?

- The importance of downpicking is vastly overblown. Play MoP with alternate picking, move on with your life.

- You do not need to pick the strings like they owe you money. You can get away much lower tension than you think, you just have to adjust your picking technique.

- Pick profiles make more difference than a pickup swap.

- Nothing will help the shit tone if your playing is shit and your guitar is out of tune. It's not the tone, it never was.

- Likewise, getting a $4k super specced guitar won't really do anything. It's a cool guitar, but it won't improve your playing. It's not the guitar, it never was.

- There are no silver bullets. No best guitar, no most versatile guitar, no "that one thing that helped you the most". I really wish beginners would understand this.

 

[mmr007]

Oh shit, we're doing guitar hot takes?

- The importance of downpicking is vastly overblown. Play MoP with alternate picking, move on with your life.

- You do not need to pick the strings like they owe you money. You can get away much lower tension than you think, you just have to adjust your picking technique.

- Pick profiles make more difference than a pickup swap.

- Nothing will help the shit tone if your playing is shit and your guitar is out of tune. It's not the tone, it never was.

- Likewise, getting a $4k super specced guitar won't really do anything. It's a cool guitar, but it won't improve your playing. It's not the guitar, it never was.

- There are no silver bullets. No best guitar, no most versatile guitar, no "that one thing that helped you the most". I really wish beginners would understand this.

I strongly disagree. It was this highly spec'd custom shop guitar that made the guitarist sound better

 

[chipchappy]

metal is overrated

 

[nickgray]

I strongly disagree. It was this highly spec'd custom shop guitar that made the guitarist sound better

EVH was way before my time, but I always found it hilarious that those superstrats with crooked bridge pickups were all the rage at some point.

If there was an ultra famous player who put an epoxied turd in the control cavity, we'd have people fighting to the death on forums arguing about how the stool composition ends up affecting the tone, and that Chinese knockoffs are a complete crap (no pun intended) because they use cow putties.

 

[thrsher]

Opeth made a mistake

savage......i love it

 

[mmr007]

EVH was way before my time, but I always found it hilarious that those superstrats with crooked bridge pickups were all the rage at some point.

If there was an ultra famous player who put an epoxied turd in the control cavity, we'd have people fighting to the death on forums arguing about how the stool composition ends up affecting the tone, and that Chinese knockoffs are a complete crap (no pun intended) because they use cow putties.

My understanding is EVH put the pickup in crooked because there was no f-spaced humbucker and this allowed the Gibson pickup pole pieces to line up better with the strings. Then yes it became a fad as monkey see monkey do

 

[youngthrasher9]

4. Fit For An Autopsy is doing Gojira better than Gojira.

Oh yeah, this is a good one.

 

[BusinessMan]

Oh shit, we're doing guitar hot takes?

- The importance of downpicking is vastly overblown. Play MoP with alternate picking, move on with your life.

- You do not need to pick the strings like they owe you money. You can get away much lower tension than you think, you just have to adjust your picking technique.

- Pick profiles make more difference than a pickup swap.

- Nothing will help the shit tone if your playing is shit and your guitar is out of tune. It's not the tone, it never was.

- Likewise, getting a $4k super specced guitar won't really do anything. It's a cool guitar, but it won't improve your playing. It's not the guitar, it never was.

- There are no silver bullets. No best guitar, no most versatile guitar, no "that one thing that helped you the most". I really wish beginners would understand this.

Hey you wanna take this out back buddy? I've never been so attacked in my life

 

[youngthrasher9]

buckethead has not released enough albums...

Also, buckethead is very respected and namedropped by many, but most people honestly haven’t listened to buckethead much (myself included). And while I’m at it: what I have heard was incredible.

 

[Crash Dandicoot]

@youngthrasher9 I'm a little biased as big B has been my favorite player since picking up the instrument some 15+ years ago, but he's legit - an actual GOAT. His body of work can be intimidating but there's a ton of recommendation charts and lists you can find.