Trapaw

Yep. The final tracks on their first three albums were about him.
"John Merrick", "Elephant Man", and "Pendulous Skin", though not in that order.
Lots of folks write about lots of different topics.
Also it's nice to know that people actually read what I write!

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Trapaw

The Devin Townsend Band

Style: Extreme metal/Death metal

Devin Townsend of Strapping Young Lad fame has been working with his solo project long before SYL ever played their first show.
TDTB is a bit more...experimental than SYL though since it's basically just Devin being Devin. Which is defintely a damn good thing. Even in SYL he basically got paid to go batshit bonkers in the studio.
He's also coming out with my personal most highly anticipated next new album here pretty soon.
So check out the Devin Townsend Band because Trapaw told you to!

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Trapaw

You know...just so we clear the air here, I've never really been a big fan of the really popular "edgy, experimental" bands like NIN, Tool, A Perfect Circle, nor Dream Theatre.
I recently heard Ashes Divide, which is the 'solo' project of Billy Howerdel of APC. And honestly I wasn't impressed. I'm sure there's lots of folks that love it, but I'm just not one of them. It sounded like a bad mixture of Led Zepplin and Coldplay. Both are good bands, but....Damn.
Anyways....I refuse to post further about exceedingly popular bands like that. They aren't metal, and I don't listen to them. Quit asking!

::Gets off his soapbox::

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Trapaw

Raunchy

Style: Deathmetal/Alternative Metal

Raunchy is a Danish metal band that first caught my eye back in early '07. Since then I've been trying to find more and more of their music. Well in the recent few months, I managed to get their discography.
And I have to say: Raunchy is some damn good metal. With amazing covers of Somebody's Watching Me, F.N.M.'s From Out Of Nowhere, and Last Christmas, Raunchy shows off their diversity.
Upon further listening to Raunchy, I have found another one of my favorite drummers. So anyways...
Listen to Raunchy because Trapaw told you to!

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Calvin

Does Amon Amarth espouse Satanism like many other Black Metal bands?

Trapaw

Nope. They are norsemen which means they follow norse mythology. Most of their songs deal with viking battles(pretty gruesome stuff) or norse myths like Odin and Loki. No mention of satan or christ anywhere.

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Stringbender

Well said. Even though I like some Dream Theater, I CANNOT see them as Metal. Calling Dream Theater metal.. why?? Because they have some songs with super-distorted guitar and some songs with the vocals screamed for a second??
OK- then with THAT theory we should call Motorhead a POLKA band because they play some songs in a 2/4 tempo- the same drum beat used in polka songs.
(actually it might be a freakin' riot to do "Ace of Spades" in a polka version onstage some day..but I'd probably get the shit beaten outta me for doing it)
ANYHOW- enough of that.. sorry Trapaw, not trying to step up on your soapbox as this is clearly your thread- just saying you're damn right!

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Only with the eyes closed can one begin to truly see.

Trapaw

Thanks man! I'm glad to see that the veins of ignorance don't run nearly as deep in this forum as they do in some others.

I just get sick of people mislabeling bands because of one or two songs. Especially when most of them get clumped into the metal genre. Granted some of it does boil down to ignorance about a particular genre of music.

Don't worry about stepping onto my soapbox, Bender. I've kinda turned this into a recommendation/vent about how frustrating the metal community is becoming thread. If it gets TOO bad though, I'll just start a separate thread for it.

Oh yeah, and I've got your back if you ever do decide to do a polka cover of Ace Of Spades. That would be hilarious.

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Trapaw

Aborted

Style- Gore Metal

Holy god of gods....Aborted. Now I'm betting not a single one of you will check this band out. I honestly possess the inability to think of a possible exception. Why? Because Aborted is pretty much the epitomy of gore metal. If Cannibal Corpse has the genre cornered, Aborted has it nailed to the floor with a railroad spike.
Aborted has been around for a fucking while it seems. Sadly enough, they are one of those bands that deteriorates as time goes on. The old stuff is definitely the best stuff, even with their older work teetering on the line of grindcore. However, there is something to be said for the newer material. Especially if you like bands such as Cannibal Corpse and Six Feet Under.
So give Aborted a quick ear because Trapaw told you to!

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Trapaw

Bleeding Through

Style- Metal/metalcore

Bleeding Through was introduced to me via one of those Metal For The Masses compile albums that get hocked around Hot Topic every now and then.
And as far as music goes, Bleeding Through was one of the best bands on the compile. Which is pretty amazing since they seem to be a pretty good band. They definitely follow a metalcore playbook, using chuggy rhythms followed by catchy singing parts. However, this is not an instant bullet through the foot considering they're one of the few bands that pull it off and pull it off relatively well.
The only thing that turns me off of them, but you may enjoy though I sincerely hope not, is that for the past five albums (which is 100% of them at this point in time), their vocalist writes about a shadowy woman from his past that torments his soul by taking his heart in her cold heartless(OXYMORON!) hands and wringing the life from it, turning it into a dark, deep abyss that not even light can escape and.....well you get the idea.
Despite this, the music itself is pretty damn good. Nothing particularly noteworthy, but definitely listenable if you like the harder metalcore style.
Check out some Bleeding Through because Trapaw told you to!

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Trapaw

Pitch Black Forecast

Style- metal/hardcore

Pitch Black Forecast first came into my line of sight when Strapping Young Lad dissolved after touring their fifth and final album. A friend of mine showed me the band and said they were really good and that one of the members of Strapping was in it. So I looked them up and they are pretty much hardcore/metalcore at it's finest. However when I say "it's finest", I of course mean it's most defining format. Plenty of chuggy parts with what I call "holler vocals". Drumming and bass was nothing spectacular either.
I couldn't pick out which member of the band had been in Strapping, nor why any member of Strapping would be in such a generic band, but I knew I had heard the vocalist somewhere before. So I looked up their Myspace and could you believe my shock when I found out that Pitch Black Forecast was fronted by Jason Popsin, better known as J-Mann, the ex vocalist of Mushroomhead. To further the shock, they did have an ex member of Strapping Young Lad; the drummer. Gene fucking Hoglan.
Apparently, Pitch Black Forecast is an attempt at a "super group" sideproject kind of thing. Which is cool, but it sounds like everyone in the band is just taking a break, with PBF just around to keep them from rusting.
The debut album, entitled Absentee, certainly got the idea nailed when it was titled. The album seems...lacking. Like the members all phoned their parts in or something.
Even with this knowledge though, I can't seem to convince myself that Pitch Black Forecast is a bad band. It's not an exceptionally GOOD one by any means, but it's not bad.
It definitely has some catchy parts, even if they are few and far between(Lighthouse for example has an amazingly catchy chorus and verse, though most of the song is spoken word which ills it.)
I guess if you're into bands like Hatebreed and Agnostic Front, then you could probably get into Pitch Black Forecast. If hardcore ain't your thing, then check out Lighthouse and end your trial period there.
Either way, check out some Pitch Black Forecast because Trapaw told you to!

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StickmanSouffle

Some cool stuff in here. Daft Punk are cool and Calculating Infinity by Dillinger Escape Plan rules face. Apparently Dillinger determine what time signature they will play in by rolling dice.

Trapaw

I would not doubt it for a fucking second.

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Trapaw

Minus The Bear

Style: Indie rock

So a good friend of mine out in Detroit(who coincidentally is designing the album art for Bury The Living) has been trying to get me into indie rock forever.
She might have finally succeeded by showing me a band called Minus The Bear. I can't honestly tell you what the appeal of that band is to me, but I love their music. Maybe because I've always been into bands like Maroon5, Counting Crows, and The Wallflowers and they kinda remind me a bit of them.
Unfortunately, I'll have to just let you watch the video since I know very little about the band.
But if you're into any sort of indie rock, give Minus The Bear a quick listen.

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StickmanSouffle

Minus the Bear fucking rules. Get Planet of Ice if your friend didn't give it to you already.

Trapaw

I certainly intend to get it.

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StickmanSouffle

Excellent.

Trapaw

So before I go on another posting spree...I have to tell you this story.
I do death metal vocals. Now in my particular southern city, there are Pantera cover bands and that is it. No local music scene at all. I've kept from going crazy by investing all my time and talent in my solo project.
So you can imagine my elation when I got a phone call from a band claiming to be deathmetal, saying that they stumbled across my project and loved my vocals. They then asked if I would mind doing some guest vocal work on their upcoming album, Dead Yellow Circle. I said sure, lemme drop in on a practice or two and we'll go from there.
I dropped in on said practice.
THE WORST BAND I HAVE HEARD IN MY LIFE!
First off, they are not deathmetal. They are deathgrind. And I only say that because they are trying to be deathmetal, but they have no concept of how to put a song together. So it comes out as deathgrind.
Secondly, they have one of the most horribly generic names I've seen. They call themself: A Corpse Is A Corpse Of Course
Their line up is a drummer, guitarist, bassist, and vocalist. The drummer owns the practice space and alot of the equipment as per usual. However they plug everything into this massive mixing board and play it through a PA system. Why? Because the drummer plays an electric kit. Does not own an acoustic set.
The bassist plays a 6 string bass and only uses the top two strings. Guitarist is average, pretty lazy.
The vocalist was what killed me though. He's trying too hard to sound like Chris Barnes of Six Feet Under.
There is a video I watch on Youtube whenever I need a chuckle. It's this kid singing One Bullet Left by SFU and he totally butchers it since he has zero power behind his voice. This guy reminded me of that video.

The lyrics are total bullshit, making no sense. And the band...wears....MASKS.
Yes. They wear masks because they ALL WORK AT WALMART. And because of this they all adopted psuedonyms. They are afraqid of losing their jobs aparently, since they speak out against Walmart in their music. Yet I have not heard a single reference to retail at all in any of their songs.
So I told them I couldn't do vocals on the CD.
It's really bad because they really think they're really good. I almost feel sorry for them. But then I remember that their vocalist calls himself Edward Severedhands and wears a Jack Skelington mask with long white hair. So I just shrug and say "They did it to themselves."

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StickmanSouffle

Haha. Oh wow. My town is a lot like that, I know how you feel.

Trapaw

Man it has been way too long since I posted here. Having a hard time recalling what I did and didnot put in here.

ANyways guys, fear not. I shall be bringing some more metal reccommendations for you. Might not be the best bands in the world, but always worth at least one listen because what doesn't get my goat might snatch yours away.

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Stringbender

Hey Trapaw, read your post about the ha-ha band you saw "audition" or were going to audition for- IT'S A GOOD THING YOU DIDN'T JOIN. I understand completely. I have a lot of the same problem in my area (also south- maybe further north than you..so I'm like in the 7th ring of Hell where you ar probably in ring 8 or 9) I get lots of folks asking me to lend my guitar skills to their stuff or help with co-writing. It sucks here in many ways because folks have NO clue what metal is -they think Dragonforce qualifies as metal.. which I think is more like taking an old Journey album and adding more distortion on the guitar- that is NOT metal..it's hard pop at best.(and as for death metal..interesting, but personally, I don't do deathmetal- no offense, I just like to play more in the power metal old/school styles.)
I laugh at the dumbasses you had described and when I go out to these open mic nights I have the damndest time not laughing at some of these guys on stage because they cannot play for shit, have no idea how to structure a song correctly, the lyrics are horrible- a real slap in the face to those of us who work hard to play and compose well. I do not laugh at them because in a way I suppose it takes some cajones to get up on stage..but then again if you get up on stage and make yourself look like a fool- that is your tough luck in way isn't it?Anyhow, looking forward to more metal reccommendations.

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Only with the eyes closed can one begin to truly see.

Trapaw

I think it has to do with the mass southern mindset. We're in the bible belt. Granted some amazing bands have come out of the south, Lamb Of God and Iwrestledabearonce being at the front of my mind. However, those, I'm afraid to say, took away the only people who had an inkling of what metal was. I also tried out on vocals for a band called All Due Respect. They were pretty good, until we got to the lyrics topic. I showed them some of my lyrics which are traditional metal/deathmetal in style. They said no, we want you to use our lyrics. I read the songs and was appalled. It was all written in southern drawl. One song actually had me saying "fuck dem law dawgs" 8 times in a row. To me, that kind of stuff is a bullet through the foot when you're trying to play shows out of your region. Sure, you play a show like that in Alabama(which is where I am regrettably residing at the time being) and you'll have a bunch of drunken hicks yelling "YEAH FUCK DEM LAW DAWGS!" You try to play that in say, Ohio? You'll get booed right off stage. Now being in a metal band, you're kinda caught in a paradox. On one hand, you don't want EVERYONE listening to your music, you wanna make the music that makes you happy. However, you have to kinda break your code and do music with a hint of mass appeal so people will actually WANT to hear it. Unless you're fine with playing your garage and open mic nights. Then by all means, do WHATEVER you want to.
Anyways...I've GOT to get some new reccommendations up here. I'll have them up soon I hope.

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Stringbender

Yep, I'm slightly northern Hell from Alabama up here in NC, I'm in NO way a "suthen boy", where I originally come from (Boston area) "Slaw" is a side dish-not a "topping" and "barbecue" is a verb, not a noun. I understand the whole thing on lyrics, which is why my lyrical works are straight-up-hard-rock because I've been around this block long enough to know where my strengths and weaknesses lie and although I can play the music in many different styles as a guitarist I am not as strong a lyricst in metal as I am in rock.. it takes a "learned mind"and the balls to admit to know one's strengths and weaknesses -especially in music and unfortunately this city seems jammed packed full of glory-hungry-fools with no talent an I often sit in the audience shaking my head and saying "if THIS is the best our future can hope for- we are truly screwed". And yes, sometimes you have to play what will appeal to the larger audience and pay for more than ramen noodles for the week, but you also have to balance it with what your heart will and will not do. I've been asked to contribute some studio guitar work on some projects and have had to turn it down because I cannot condone rap or hip-hop or music that every once of my being says not to play it.

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Only with the eyes closed can one begin to truly see.

SAM

I really like gojira.But I didn't know they were french until recently.
usually there's a large gap between European metal and American.
(European being primarily better in my opinion.)

up in the pacific north west,it's land of the generic death core and Seattle indie.
It's gotten to the point where this area is so overrun with the same thing, that going to shows is like one long strung out song, with no ending or beginning.
It's more of a fad and less of being about the music itself. There's nothing interesting.

Trapaw

Yes. I first got introduced to Gojira at a show they played with Lamb Of God and Trivium. BY FAR the best band at that show now that I reflect back on it.

Anyways...I've GOT to get some more stuff up here. I've been neglecting this thing in favor of working on my CD.

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