Poll: Do you like heavy metal?

Not that one...in the US they are known as as Ghost B.C. Album Infestissumam or Opus Eponymous.

 

The Orchid and Kadavar LP's are excellent, especially Kadavar. Also check out Uncle Acid, the latest is pretty good as well.

 

Yeah, I'm a big Uncle Acid fan.

 

Good stuff! Thanks for that. I'm really digging the song 'Secular Haze' off of Infestissumam.

 

Ghost BC is an interesting band. I really like them quite a bit but there seems to be some kind of backlash against them in the metal underground. There is even an online petition to get them to stop! I think the negativity results from the fact that they've been commercially pretty successful, especially abroad. Also, their music really isn't all that heavy. In fact, I was listening to Infestissumam-however you spell it-on my way home from work last night. To me, it's smooth hard rock with a pop rock touch. There is even one song (Year Zero) that almost has a disco feel to it. Very little metal at all, despite the Satanic imagery.

 

Yeah, it's definitely not all that heavy. My one complaint would the lyrics and the imagery. All that stuff just feels so played at this point. I can deal with it when listening to Slayer or even Helloween, but a lot of the newer stuff just feels a little vacant to me on the lyrics front. I mean, there has to be other things to write about? Say what you will about Metallica, but their lyrics and topics have been pretty good over the years. Iron Maiden as well, given their historical, classical lit, narrative, story approach. And Geezer's Sabbath lyrics are really good.

 

That's a problem, similar to punk. While I think metal has evolved more, there's still seems to be an insular approach to it all. It doesn't have to be that way, but it's risky as a band. It just feels like a smaller and smaller gene pool, and all this interbreeding isn't good for long-term survival.

 

"Heavy Metal " and "Loud Rock" are in different Petri dishes, aren't they?

 

i don't like it, but it doesn't bother me.

 

That is what destroyed rock music. Rock was a wide range of styles that all had a common bond. Stations played Anne Murray, Sabbath, Zeplin, Yes, The Gues Who, and bubblegum music all on one playlist.
Music busting up into all of these tightly defined sub genres took the variety out of rock music. The minute rock music became someones perceived stereotype the very basis of what made rock rock was gone.
You heard the best of each style of music all on one station, instead of a station just playing everything that fits within certain parameters. So now you hear a bunch of BS on a station to fill up air time and a few good songs. Instead of those few songs being on a playlist with other "few good songs" from all the other styles that now have entire playlists dedicated to them.
Now it is entire playlists that provide 24/7 of the same thing over and over and over and over. Boring as hell.

 

This year I've gotten back into heavy metal. I've been listening to a lot of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Dio. I'd never listened to these bands much in the past but now I really appreciate their music, particularly Iron Maiden. I've now got 11 of their albums. Exceptional stuff, particularly Killers, Powerslave, Somewhere in Time, Number of the Beast and Brave New World. I also love Dio's Holy Diver and Judas Priest's British Steel. I even like Turbo!
Avenged Sevenfold is a new favorite as well.

 

Metal clearly rules!

 

Absolutely!

 

I like this shot of Mr Dickinson-

 

I was a big Iron Maiden fan when I was a boy (12 years old, I'd say). Now, not so much. In fact, I can't think of a genre I'm less interested in than heavy metal (dubstep, maybe ?). Glad I get that out of my system early.