Poll: Do you like heavy metal?

never got any better than black sabbath

 

I always preferred Vinnie Moore.

 

I've got Yngwie and Randy. Jason doesn't do it for me, though he certainly plays better than I ever will.

Please don't mistake my dislike of polls for a dislike of what the poll is about.

 

Metal seems to have boxed itself in over the last few decades, although there are still some newer bands I like. I totally agree about the lyrical content, some of the style/fashion (although not everyone is like that) - it gets a little old by this point. I think Dio pretty much covered the D&D angle enough that nobody needs to go there again (and hey, I loved the first two records). My main gripe these days are the vocals - I really really hate the cookie monster/knee-balls vocals. I'd rather hear Halford sing ridiculous lyrics than 95% of the newer bands. And say what you want about the hair band vocalists, but at least they sang.

 

Boxed itself in, good way to put it.
It seems as if a metal band were to stray too far from the owners manual they would be pariah.
And the cookie monster vocals, I thought that was juvenile the first time I heard it.

 

I just listened to my vinyl copy a few days ago...it's even still sitting atop my speaker. I do prefer Time Odyssey and think "The Tempest" is one of his greatest songs. He's like Yngwie, DiMeola and Holdsworth wrapped into one.

 

For the new breed of hair metal-style stuff have you heard Crashdiet or Eclipse? Crashdiet are recommended if you like the first two Skid Row albums. I've brought them up several times to those looking for newer stuff that harkens back to the heyday of that sound.

Native Nature

 

Heavy Rock, Yes..after 1980..yuk. Porcupine Tree, that has to be the worst name for a band.

 

Porcupine Tree was always a bit curious to me as well.
It reminds me of something my best friend ( we have been friends since we were kids and still are, as old men) told his kids when they were small.
There is this weed where I am, I don't know what it is but it is a pod at the end of a stem that has pointy barbs sticking out of it.
He told his kids they were porcupine eggs.

 

Try some Opeth if you want to hear good singing and accessible "cooking monster vocals". The Drapery Falls is a good example of what they do with a good mixture of cleans/growls. Benighted, Face of Melinda and Burden are great tracks with no growls. If you like prog rock then Damnation, Heritage and Pale Communion (not out for a few weeks) only have clean vocals.

 

Their albums with clean vocals are pretty good but their cookie monster vocals are just as laughably bad as any other band that uses them (IMO). To those that can appreciate the growling more power to you but to me it is both comical and nails-on-a-chalkboard unlistenably bad at the same time.

 

I didn't like them at first either but they did grow on me and now I can appreciate them.

 

Yeah, he had a subtlety to his tone and playing that really appealed to me, it was all so buttery smooth. And you're right, Time Odyssey was the better of the first two. I just grabbed the first thing that popped up since it's all pretty good. I gotta keep my eyes out for those two on vinyl. I had them on tape and CD back then...

 

Very Sebastian Bach! Pretty good for what it is, although my metal preferences run towards either sludgy and fuzzy or more thrash. I just wish you could get someone like the Crashdiet singer in a band like Mastodon or Sword. Honestly, I don't need them to even sing great - I just don't like the growling or singing that has too many affectations. I'll take the Uncle Acid singer, at least he doesn't subtract from the music. Paul Di'Anno, Hetfield, Joey Belladonna - perfectly acceptable metal vocalists.

 

I'm more of a hard/heavy rock guy (Van Halen, AC/DC, Thin Lizzy) but I love classic metal (Sabbath, Priest, Maiden) and early thrash of the Big Four variety (minus Slayer). Hair metal was never my thing but at its best it was decent melodic power pop.

 

See, why did Opeth have to go and ruin perfectly good songs with that crap. The Drapery Falls is a cool song - until you get to the cookie monster part. The other clean vocal songs you mentioned are are pretty good too. I've been listening to 'Heritage' today, which at times reminds me of early Rainbow (that's a plus), and from what I've read this one is a departure from their earlier stuff. It's pretty good, although a little loose at times - and no growling.

 

It enhances the songs IMO. I like how they are one of the few bands that can do both very well and it makes the songs more varied/interesting. I miss the growls now but I love Damnation which is in my top 3 Opeth (not so keen on Heritage). I guess if you grew up without any bands growling then it's almost a certainty that you will hate it.

 

Porcupine Tree is Metal now?

 

Yes, of course!

 

That's cool, different boats and horses and all that stuff. I'm not exactly a person who needs pristine vocals - I grew up on metal, but also on some 80's punk and hardcore, but I just can't get past the cookie growl. It bugs me because I generally like the music of these bands but that style of vocals just kills it for me.

 

What all would qualify as cooke monster vocals? What about Sepultura, early Bathory, Possessed's 7 Churches, Celtic Frost? Those I like. However, I can't take the ones that are way over the top to point of sounding like parody.

 

I don't think of PT as "metal" but I do think they incorporated some metal influences on many of their latter day albums, most notably on "Deadwing". Perhaps it came out of Steven Wilson working with Opeth? But in all honesty, those heavier discs hold less interest for me than their more overtly psych/prog era, culminating in the gorgeous "Lightbulb Sun".

 

@Brudy have you heard Ghost?

 

I never thought I would like the growling vocals either but, as others have shared, with Opeth I eventually learned to enjoy them. Maybe it's his delivery, maybe it's just because Opeth are light years better than the run of the mill Death metal band.
To me Blackwater Park is probably one of two or three metal albums released post 1990 that I would classify as a masterpiece.

 

No, but I'll look them up. On spotify, what shows up for Ghost is ambient electronic music...