For my Music in the United States Class (MUH 2632) our teacher wanted us to burn him a CD called a “desert Island mix” in which he wanted us to make a CD that, if stranded on a desert island, would contain 10 songs we could not live without. He intends on adding it to the lesson plan for a class next month. I, being the music junky that I am, could never narrow it down to such a small number, so I instead aimed for what I think he wanted, which was diversity in the music, specifically the metal genre. This is the breakdown I wrote him for the class, which I will now be adding a shit-ton (that’s a lot) of links to this for all reference purposes. These are my opinions and I am adding the links to certain things I am sure will make you say “huh?” to, which if there is not a link to something, you can simply leave a comment and I will get back to you.
I had intended on reviewing a CD for you guys this semester anyway, so this is kind of killing two birds with one stone. That being said, read and enjoy.
First and foremost, I found narrowing down the music I could not live without extremely difficult, seeing as how I live and die by it. I would also like to point out that I left off much of my music selection since you said you wanted “Our music” which I believe you meant more current artist as contrary to older bands that are greatly influential upon myself. I attempted to showcase as many of the main sub-genres of metal with this mix for you to get a taste of how diverse this one genre can be. That being said, here is my list:
- Song: Immigrant Song
b.Artist: Led Zeppelin
c. Genre: Classic Rock
d.Summary: A classic rock band (open to debate) that heavily influenced many metal bands of today. Robert Plant was one of the first great of what I like to call an epic vocalist, or vocalist consisting of such a powerful voice with the notes he hits that it sends a chill down your spine. Many pop divas also have this affect, difference being that divas make you feel relaxed and at ease after the chill, whereas an epic vocalist such as Plant would make you want to do something epic yourself, such as mosh, speed, fight, or head bang.
- Song: Painkiller
b.Artist: Judas Priest
c. Genre: Heavy Metal
d.Summary: In my opinion one of the greatest vocalist of our time. Rob Halford, the lead singer of Judas Priest, has a 4-octave range voice, which he portrays his ability in this song. Judas Priest is also one of the fore-fathers of the metal genre, and has influenced most of the genre (specifically the fashion and association of leather as stated by Gay for a Day) in the metal community. The reason I chose this song? Simple, I can’t help but sing the line “faster than a laser bullet” whenever it is said in the song.
- Song: Deliverance
a. (Youtube Video) Video is cut short because youtube is stingy.
b.Artist: Opeth
c. Genre: Melodic Death Metal
d.Summary: This band has only a handful of songs that are less than six minutes long. I like this band solely because of the uniqueness of the vocalist, Mikael Åkerfeldt. Very few vocalist can actually sing and bellow, which makes him a dime a dozen. The song structure of this band is also very unique, changing tempo and beat at least three times in this song alone.
- Song: End of All Hope
b.Artist: Nightwish
c. Genre: Power Metal/Operatic metal
d.Summary: This is the sole song that got me into metal. I heard this and the beginning notes of Tarja’s (the lead singer) voice, and instantly fell in love. The melding of metal and opera is such an absurd thought that it works stupendously, as I am sure if you listen to this all the way through, you will not be disappointed.
- Song: Wolf and Raven
b.Artist: Sonata Arctica
c. Genre: Power Metal
d.Summary: What is fascinating about this band is their lead keyboardist (and the entire opening segment of this song) is played on a keytar. Yes, that’s right, the instrument they invented in the 80s in a sad attempt to make the keyboardist look cool. Fortunately for them, it took a decade for it to actually work.
- Song: Rational Gaze
a. (Youtube Video) Awesome music video, might I add.
b.Artist: Meshuggah
c. Genre: Progressive Metal
d.Summary: at the UCF metal club we used to play songs and everyone got a turn. If you sucked at picking songs, typically you were heavily mocked. I was constantly mocked when I first attended. This was the first song I picked where the entire club was struck in awe that I had actually played this song and they all liked it.
The odd time signatures make conventional listening of this group nearly impossible. Many bands have tried to mimic this band (such as most Mathcore bands) and have failed miserably. I have found that anyone who has listened in-depth to music before generally falls in love with this band after the first few listens.
- Song: Raining Blood (Explicit)
b.Artist: Slayer
c. Genre: Thrash Metal
d.Summary: Slayer is known for causing massive controversy by bashing religion, promoting rape, and supporting Nazis. The ironic part about this? The lead singer, Tom Araya, is a devout Catholic and frequently attends mass. He has gone on record numerous times stating that it is just a job and pissing people off just helps to sell records, and anyone who takes them seriously are morons. Apparently, no one listens.
This is Thrash Metal, the same genre Metallica falls under by default. I say by default because after the first few albums they implemented slower drums and guitar to have a more mainstream sound. This is real thrash, the kind you will never hear on radio, and the kind that does as thrash was meant to do…make you violent!
- Song: S.Y.L. (HIGHLY Explicit)
b.Artist: Strapping Young Lad
c. Genre: Progressive Metal
d.Summary: This is my favorite metal band. The guy who originated the idea for the UCF metal club, Justin Gogas, showed me the “way of metal” with this band. They are extreme and the lead singer, Devin Townsend, is a musical genius. If you want to you can look up his solo stuff, it’s not near as angry and its almost as if a different person wrote it altogether (as he is heavily bi-polar).
This band falls under the progressive genre because they use so many variations on every song it is nearly impossible to throw them into any one genre. Use of choirs, orchestras, obscure time signatures, and an ice cream truck theme song (yes, an ice cream truck song) are just a few of them to name.
- Song: Vredesbyrd (Not sure, but your safe, its in a foreign language)
b.Artist: Dimmu Borgir
c. Genre: Black Metal/Symphonic Black Metal
d.Summary: This is Black Metal, one of the scariest genres of metal. Most black metal bands wear corpse paint (a mix of black and white face paint that looks demonic). It is very closely related with Death metal. One of the main differences is most black metal is very anti-Christianity in its lyrics, in fact there was a string of black metal bands in the mid-90s that burned down 200-year-old churches. One of the other key factors of black metal is the high pitched evil sounding vocals, which are followed by frequently switching with low bellowing, which adds a very nice evil sound to the music, which in itself is beautifully orchestrated.
- Song: No Excuses
b.Artist: Alice in Chains
c. Genre: Grunge Rock
d.Summary: This is the only non-metal song to make it on my list, and is one of my favorite bands. I consider Grunge Rock to more or less be the “teenage” years of metal as its going through puberty. Jerry Cantrell, the lead guitarist of
The use of distortion and very drawn out, powerful notes is what I believe draws me to this. The vocals of Layne Staley (lead singer) and Cantrell are both around the same range, so when they both sing (instead of using a voice dubbing machine to just copy Staley’s vocals like most “musicians” nowadays) it adds a creepy, almost haunting chill to the music, which I love.
There you have it. I hope you enjoyed my insight to music and if you have any questions or want a copy of the CD, feel free to email me at wstone2@mail.usf.edu .
~Bane
Bane, this is quite the list...
ReplyDeletePersonally, the most regular exposure I've experienced with Judas Priest is from Madden 2010. I completely agree with the points you make, and maybe it's just the fact that I have to listen to that song every time I play the game (I've only had it about a month, so I'm still on the 5-6 days a week kick)... but I seriously want to stab myself in the ear now. Halford's falsetto is obviously something that I can only take in small doses. The guitar is ridiculous, though. That's some "badass shredding".
Is that a correct term?