What do you want from a metal band?

[Ancestor]

I was just thinking about this and how I'm frequently not in the mood to listen to any of my CDs, even though I have enough of a variety that I should like at least one at any given moment. Then I started asking my self what I really wanted to hear. I found it hard to answer the question.

Does anyone here have specific stuff that they like to hear or wish they could hear from metal "units"? < unit

 

[Tim77]

I know what you are feeling, most of the time i'll know what I want to listen to, and I have a pretty big variety of metal albums. Usually I'll go for what my mood mirrors, If I feel like listening to something calmer or a bit more savage, but sometimes I just don't feel like listening to anything that I own. In that case, what I do is : I put my music on shuffle, or random whatever you want to call it, and usually the right band, even though I took a glance at the album cover and tossed it aside, will come on, and it'll just start from there. In the cases when the song doesn't show up shortly, I just keep changing song until my player falls upon one that satisfies me. As for wanting to hear specific stuff, I say that just depends on my mood. Although, most of the time, I really enjoy death metal. Bands such as Nile, Necrophagist, Martyr , Gorguts...... etc.

 

[MerlinTKD]

Hmmm... well, it changes with my mood, but generally...



Well, crap, I can't seem to come up with anything that applies across the board. Let me give it another shot...



Aggression, and it needs to make me move.

Except for the times I don't feel aggressive, then I listen to something other than metal... like Spin Doctors or Dave Matthews

Oh... and it always has to have excellent drumming - which does NOT, by the way, include "I can play faster than anyone else until I herniate myself".

 

[Alpo]

Great songs.

 

[distressed_romeo]

I don't really have a formula, as I love lots of different music for different reasons, and some particular elements I enjoy in different bands wouldn't work so well if you tried to mix them together in one entity.

 

[HamBungler]

When metal fails to satisfy me, I just listen to something else until that metal craving comes creeping back!

But I would say my ideal metal band would have crushing riffs, some awesome lyrics, excellent drumming, and a well defined bass line (with lotsa slap riffs in there).

 

[amonb]

Aggression, and it needs to make me move.

I agree with that one, and the drumming comment lol. Sometimes I want to hear things that are really technical so I can admire the skill and the discipline, like Necrophagist or Megadeth.

But sometimes I just want big-ass riffs, Like say Danzig's Circle of Snakes (which hasn't got anything a 5-year old can't play but DAMN that sounds heavy) or Jesu, or Helmet.

To tell you the truth, a heavy riff will beat technical playing in my ears every time.

 

[MetalSir]

I was just thinking about this and how I'm frequently not in the mood to listen to any of my CDs, even though I have enough of a variety that I should like at least one at any given moment. Then I started asking my self what I really wanted to hear. (..)

mmm.. i make me this question evry day.. mmm, not true, 2 or 3 times a day.. sometimes i decided to work on something (for example the new track of a band that called me fo play with them).. but sometimes a really don't know how to listen.. i believe that is the same state of mind of when you really don't know how you fell inside you..

for that moment i prefear some classical music: bach or paganini in order to apreciate some "classics".. yesterday i was uderstanding "12 sonate of Domenico Scarlatti"..

eheh

 

[Unknown Doodl3.2]

I have no idea what I need. All I know is that f it makes me smile, makes me feel an emotion I didn't feel before the song, or quite simply just makes the hair on my arms and back go straight up, then I've got a winner

 

[BCrowell]

What I personally look for in metal:

-Clever, Heavy hitting, yet Crisp rythm guitars. (Gimme the same 'ol boring overbaked status quo riffage, and you'll be thrown out my car window on I-95 )

-Vocals that KNOW when to SCREAM, and when to settle down! (Screaming during a nice melodic part, ) Not to mention can I even understand the lyrics?

-A good backing bass, with kick ass lines (Hammering out constant 16th root notes BAD, moving lines and syncopated licks GOOD!)

-A good drummer, that really drives the music and yet knows it's uncool to play double bass lines THE WHOLE TIME!

A prime example of a perfect metal song IMHO, is Pantera's "Cemetary Gates"...
-Heavy hitting and unique rythm gtrs - CHECK
-A vocalist that cooly pulls the emotion, and wails when appropriate - CHECK
-A bass player moving around some heavy lines - CHECK
-A drummer driving the band and kickin in some syncopated druming - CHECK

 

[telecaster90]

Intensity

 

[Karl Hungus]

FREE PIE!!!

 

[Jachop]

Pure muthafuckin' aggression

 

[Rick]

Good music.

 

[playstopause]

Leather jackets and tattoos.



















Ok, something that hits me in the stomach. A bite. Edginess / roughness / energy.

 

[Naren]

Smiles, laughter, joy, love, and a fully-stocked bakery of only the best home-cooked delectibles delivered right to my table.

That's what I want from a metal band.

 

[OzzyC]

Smiles, laughter, joy, love, and a fully-stocked bakery of only the best home-cooked delectibles delivered right to my table.

That's what I want from a metal band.

Or, something that takes real influences from every (Or at least many...) great forms of music, puts it in a blender, press liquefy, then creates their own brand of insanity unique to them which no one copies exactly.

 

[RISKY]

I want to hear something different!!! The lack of progression in heavy music today astounds me but nowadays every band wants to be the next ________. The reasons for doing it got something mixed in the ingredients now and it's botching up the recipe!
I think you can hear integrity in music, especially live, if it's sincere and original it translates well, but I wish we weren't re-living the glam era in terms of songwriting for what is popular in the genre.

If you thirsting for something new to listen I can't stop myself from suggesting to check out a taste of my band. MySpace.com - sydbarret. - fuck, NEW JERSEY - Metal / Metal / Metal - www.myspace.com/sydbarr3tNot trying to toot my own horn, but we seem to be like black sheep everywhere and this question- what I want from metal, is always kicking around in my head. We seem to encompass too much heaviness for the shredders, and too much shred for the breakdown junkies. Kids into hardcore say we don't play any breakdowns, yet purists into metal sometimes associate us as if we're a "breakdown band". I think people more into thrash seem to meet us halfway but overall the only types of fans we get seem like just genuine fans of music. People with big record collections, a lot of varied musical knowledge across genres and decades, no specializationists, and lots of foreign people!

I think right now for music if certain listeners can't compartmentalize you it's almost as if you don't exist! And that's what I think sucks right now because that's the shit I want to hear!!!

 

[Lucky Seven]

I like a metal band that has enough contrast in their music to make fast aggressive parts sound like more than just noise from the beginning of an album to the end. Technicality is also important to me (unless it's Danzig).

 

[All_¥our_Bass]

I want bands to have their own distinctive style, I like some technical proficiency, good tone, variety, decent production (production can be TOO good sometimes), to be in it for the music, bands that are themselves, agression, aestetic 'grittyness' maybe even a bit purposely ugly.