Rolling Metal Thread 2014

@誤訳侮辱, I think what leaves me scratching my head is the strong kawaii element in Babymetal. I understand what you say with regard to Japanese girl pop like Kyary (the only one I've listened to out of the ones you mention), and I agree with it.

Babymetal also tries too hard to be catchy that it ends up sounding too trite for my taste; e.g., those synthy lines and danceable tunes. That whole industrialish side is interesting, though.

It does sound like I'm playing old school Dance Dance Revolution at times or whatever the Japanese version of that was.

Like I said, I'm still digesting this album. I've listened to it a few times. I initially loved it, but these thoughts! Maybe I'm thinking about it too much.

I'm not sure there's anything bigger going on on a sociological/cultural level other than the novelty of teenage Japanese girls playing J-pop metal with crazy videos.

Babymetal is way too put together and calculated, which is a turn off for me. There is nothing organic about it. its a product, verses being art. Thats what bothers me about it.

Oh, it's absolutely a product. It's J pop wearing a metal suit. But there is room for that as well. You don't have to LIKE it, but not everything has to be high art. Commando can be just as satisfying in its own way as The Conformist, you know?

It doesn't surprise or bother me that there are people who don't like BABYMETAL. Or Blood Stain Child, before them. Both are clearly playing the genre-blending for well-calculated effect, BABYMETAL even more blatantly than BSC. And I don't always like the novelty-minded combination of two things I like individually. But these totally work for me.

Again I don't care about the calculated aspect or the product push, I care about the fact that this Choco song is like banging my teeth out with a clawhammer, enjoymentwise.

did I mention the nux vomica record is the first metal release of 2014 I've heard that really knocks me over well it is so listen to that if you get a chance

or post more about babymetal I guess I can't tell you how to live yr life

y'all can post all you want but i am never watching the babymetal video. i mean just so we're clear.

well, here's what I like about j-pop. like 誤訳侮辱 said, the production is frequently top-notch, sure. and lot of it is dull too -- lots and lots of boring ballads and 48 member idol groups doing generic songs about cherry blossom season and pressing that onto 25 varieties of cd singles. but to me, the good stuff is hyper melodic and has a bright, sweet character I just really enjoy. and it helps if you already like things like ymo, old video game soundtracks, and anime, sure.

but the acts I really dig - like momoiro clover z, dempagmumi.inc., and mosaic.wav - seem so ambitious to me and I love that they (well, the first two) are still being marketed as pop acts -- as idol acts! the most commercial kind of music imaginable. and really, the way I listen to em isn't that different from the way I listen to metal. all three of those three acts often fuse wild, proggy arrangements with a power metal sense of drama, and hyper tempos that give me the same rush as good grindcore. and it's catchy too. I dunno, this stuff rules on a purely musical level.

what Alan said

For the past 20 years or so, one band has fused noisy hardcore punk with synthesized Japanese-flavored pop music like no other band in human history. That band is known as Melt-Banana... Jakob's Album Reviews

The resulting record is fierce and uncompromising, shot through with a sense of fun and a clear love of some kind of distorted, abstract vision of pop music. Japan Times

Easily recognizable by their extremely fast and energetic Grindcore music combined with elements of Nu Metal, Alternative Rock, Electronic Music (especially Harsh Noise and Industrial), Punk Rock, dance music and Japanese Pop Music... TV Tropes

If you like abrasive, dissonant music, you’ll like these guys. Besides the great music, you also have the great vocalist, who sounds like a J-Pop singer on meth. The Really Good Japanese Rock Music Guide

Since the early 1990s, Melt-Banana has been claiming that their noisy, thrashing punk is actually pop music. Treble Zine

So there's a handful of reviewers who pointed out that Melt Banana has pop music influences.

All I said was that Melt Banana combined Japanese Pop elements with extreme music. I fail to see how this is particularly controversial. Sorry if it bugs anyone that a another band who also combines Japanese Pop elements with extreme music makes music that you think sucks. Obviously they are two different bands and the extreme music that they employ is markedly different.

Anyone who thinks I am pointing this out because they are both Japanese with female vocals are wrong. I didn't mention Gallhammer (they never seemed to incorporate much of a pop influence in what they do) and I didn't mention the slew of other Japanese noise or metal bands with female vocalists because I don't hear a connection. The bands I did mention all do exactly what I said they do: combine some percentage of Japanese Pop music with some percentage of extreme music (may it be metal, punk, noise or whatever). And they do.

yeah melt banana def went (grind)pop circa teeny shiny. I don't think they sound anything like babymetal (or any metal band) and it's a stretch, but I can see where you're coming from.

not sure I would have used that tvtropes one as a case for the defence

haha

so anyway, did anybody that ordered the gridlink vinyl get theirs yet? getting pretty excited to hear this!

and those of you who have heard it - is it longer than 10mins?

it seems to be

but if you play it on repeat, it's hard to tell exactly how much longer

The new GridLink is actually 21 1/2 minutes long - almost as long as their two previous albums put together!

It's a double album, basically.

yessssss

One of you should start a Babymetal thread as I'm sure it might appeal to non-metal thread reading ilxors.

the last track "Zero" on the most recent Melt-Banana album is a fantastic straight up pop song, very little extreme elements whatsoever

Babymetal is way too put together and calculated, which is a turn off for me. There is nothing organic about it. its a product, verses being art. Thats what bothers me about it.

― SeanWayne

Surely this isn't a post on ilx in 2014.

huh, that's funny, i'm listening to disfear, haven't in quite a while since i wasn't super into metal when it came out (live the storm, 2008), and now i find that it's got ballou sound™ (and an entombed guitarist!).

lol sputnik reviewz

The only complaint I have with this album is the drums. It sounds like he only plays slight variations on the same beat throughout the album. The beat does go well with all the songs and he can play it very fast and well but it gives the songs a repetitive feel that they avoid on all the other instruments.

Purchased today without irony in honor of Babymetal:

http://a1-images.myspacecdn.com/images04/1/13846627d14c4280b539ca9df2e062ee/full.jpg

We can all agree that chocolate rules, I hope... Save for the lactose intolerant among us, I guess.

Surely this isn't a post on ilx in 2014.

this is the metal thread, our aesthetics are still righteous here

this is the metal thread, our aesthetics are still righteous here

Change board description to this please.

some still follow the old ways

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/18962-thou-heathen/

this is v. sick

good dirty rhythm section

good dirty rhythm section

*ears perk up*

hey they beat the pfork 8.2 ceiling on metal, well done

burned out on thou a few years ago due to fatigue with their prolific release schedule. that and I also didn't find the idea of grunge covers too promising. but I think I'm ready for more again.

yeah same p much. they were one of v v few bands where I tried to buy everything (bands for which this takes some kind of effort I mean); really can't be bothered trying to do that anymore so kinda glad they eased off for a while. keen to hear this

you can hear a tiny bit of grunge (or grunge-era sludge) in their sound, i think, mainly in the willingness to get a smidge gnarly where a lot of doom is more refined. but i kind of think of it like, people who cared for those sounds and then saw what came of them and said, ~~never again~~, voila, 70-minute sub-100bpm album with anguished shrieking in place of singing, no chance of THAT soundtracking or being co-opted by anything

could probably stand a lesson or two from nate on caveman technique

i'm loving it though, more than anything else i've heard so far this year

has anyone heard the new nadja record? came out last month. really liking this one:

http://nadja.bandcamp.com/album/queller

their promo cycle uptake is terrible, i never hear about theirs ahead of time/on release

god and they had one last year too

I've recently tried to look for some metal albums on Spotify and it seems like there are very few on it.

Is there a particular reason for this? Is it because it doesn't suit the metal aesthetic?

Hey, new Xandria album in May. It sounds really good from the available snippet.

Not sure what albums you were looking for, but I've never had trouble finding metal albums on Spotify, especially more recent stuff.

i thought they were like chock full of swedish metal et al

I find plenty of metal on spotify, certain labels/artists are just black holes

also some, like profound lore, sometimes wait quite a while after the release date to make an album available on spotify for streaming

Thou's Heathen isn't on there. At least when I posted my previous comment it wasn't.

But that may be just to it being too new?

Thinking about it, maybe I'm just looking for albums that are too new or not on a big enough label, so never mind.

i think its release date is a week and a half from now

yeah thought I saw that somewhere is hosting an advance album stream next week

release date is 3/25, NPR will stream it a week before

http://www.gileadmedia.net/releasedirectory/relic48-thou-heathen-gatefold-cd/

Just wondering, how many people does Slayer normally pull? I just saw them booked in a 750 ppl sized venue here in June. Surely Slayer could easily sell out much bigger places?

I would have thought so

they play for a few thousand in Dallas.

they fluctuated here over the years between the barrowlands (1900 capacity) and the SECC (probably not the big hall but youre still talking 4 or 5 thousand in the smallest one I think) though they usually had biggish name supporting them that helped sell tix.