Metal thread of Metalness, or Hawk needs music

[Hanuman]

Is it all just Dream Theater anyway

It's Images and Words leading into Awake leading into Train of Thought, in that order.

DT for metal is pretty far off the mark of other metal as it doesn't grant immediate comfort within the aggressive sunken male energy vibe... instead it takes like 2-3 hours to describe the emotional flow of an entire story with many more levels of expression than most art forms dream of expressing through their pieces.

The main problem with DT is that because of this almost ridiculous undertaking it makes their music and message a bit cumbersome =/


BUT, if you actually have the time//attention span I suggest listening to those 3 albums in 1 sitting.

[Mondt]

Originally Posted by Lev

It's Images and Words leading into Awake leading into Train of Thought, in that order.

DT for metal is pretty far off the mark of other metal as it doesn't grant immediate comfort within the aggressive sunken male energy vibe... instead it takes like 2-3 hours to describe the emotional flow of an entire story with many more levels of expression than most art forms dream of expressing through their pieces.

The main problem with DT is that because of this almost ridiculous undertaking it makes their music and message a bit cumbersome =/


BUT, if you actually have the time//attention span I suggest listening to those 3 albums in 1 sitting.

See, my beef with Dream Theater is, while they may have been progressive a sixty years ago when they all had hair, they are getting old. Given, I haven't listened to their old stuff and very limited with newer stuff but this is what I get out of it:

• The vocalist oozes pretentiousness out of every orifice and pore of his body. I mean, his voice alone makes him sound like an ultimate douche. This is not someone I want to listen to.
• Petrucci is fantastic, but some of the guitar work is so unnecessary. Complication for the sake of complication without breaking ground is just boring. Unless you're going to surprise me with what you do next, you shouldn't be trying to force your music to be interesting.
• Myung is a god. He can do his wankery all day. I don't care. Seriously. Strip DT of everyone but Myung and it would STILL be beautiful. God I love that guy.
• I hate their drummer. He thinks he's Neil Peart when really he just sits on his hi-hat all day. More pretentiousness. Yeah, he's really good, but his Mountain of Cymabls(tm) is stupid.

All that and I just find their stuff incredibly uninteresting in the first place. At this point (again, in my limited experience), it just sounds like power metal wankery.

[Hanuman]

Well, a big reason people have such different musical tastes is why and how they listen to music... your points of course are valid-- from a technical and entertainment standpoint, I don't personally agree that I can pick out any pretentiousness, though it may just be that I'm not looking hard enough for them, or that you're looking too hard for them.

Personally I just listen to the albums I posted as if they were an experience instead of actively picking apart the music-- perhaps because I'm not interested in any of their instruments and can't play anything hooked up to an amp.


Edit-- OOPS! Some grooveshark weirdness there, Honor Thy Father was from a different band or something, fix'd.

[MuMu]

I'm not a big listener in general but Mondt reccomended me Protest The Hero once and I gotta say it was pretty sweet, even though I have no idea what Metal it is supposed to be.

[The Sevenshot Kid]

Not sure if they count as metal, but A Day to Remember kicks ass.

[Mondt]

Originally Posted by Lev

Personally I just listen to the albums I posted as if they were an experience instead of actively picking apart the music-- perhaps because I'm not interested in any of their instruments and can't play anything hooked up to an amp.

=D I get this a lot, and it really makes me not a good person to talk to about music. I've gotten better about it, but mostly I end up insulting people's intelligence. I pick stuff apart, I like knowing what makes it up. *shrug*

I'm in no way saying that you shouldn't listen to it though. To each their own!

Edit: MuMu is correct in that PTH is the coolest thing to happen to metal in forever.

Also, if you had to categorize them, they would probably be a sort of mathcore (Frequent time signature changes and tempo changes, they have breakdowns here and there) with a heavy punk influence. =D

[Rejected Again]

Devil Driver, All that Remains, The Agonist, Arch-Enemy, Shadows Fall, Murderdolls (Gothy), Lamb of God, and Coal Chamber.

Too lazy to link them. Deal with it

Edit: Lev, too bad you live so far away. I do lessons for Guitar and Bass

[Mondt]

All That Remains' Oli Herbert is a god at mini-solos. He will melt your face in the 5 seconds between the melodic instrumental bridge and the final chorus.

Edit: I AM LEARNING SONGS ON DA BASS LOLOLOL I just replaced my bass strings and I don't like the ones I got =( really tinny and metallic sounding. I just thought I would mention this because of above edit. =D

[Rejected Again]

I use Ernie Ball stings on everything I own. Give a great clean tone that works well with metal distortion. Only around 5 bucks a set at your local Guitar Center for the cheap set.

[rawredy]

Originally Posted by Hawk

Kotipelto and Nocturnal Rites both sounded ok, but there's a hell of a lot of albums for each so I don't even know where to start with either of those. Care to narrow it down to a couple of the better albums for me?

Glad to have helped, though while I like both bands, I haven't gotten around to sitting down and having a session of listening through their albums, so I'm not much help in that department, I'm afraid.

I'd add more bands for you to check out, but I can't think of many more power or progressive metal bands I'd recommend at the moment.
Though, if you don't mind some symphonic metal, try out Amberian Dawn, Angtoria, and Gwyllion.
I'd give more of a list, but I think I've volunteered enough bands already, though there could always be more. That, and most of the bands I'm rather into lately have been bands that feature harsher vocals like death/black metal. Though avant-garde metal has recently reared its head and I'm getting quite attached to that genre.
If I had to recommend a band out of that genre, I'm not sure where I'd start. So many great bands.