Amph Riding the lightning - the JC heavy metal thread

If you want to understand djent, you should start with Meshuggah but if you want to mix djent with the kind of guitar playing that if you practised every day, 3 hrs a day, for 30 years you'd never beat, then look at Animals As Leaders.

Djent really works off syncopation. "Rational Gaze", for example, has the drums playing 4/4 time hitting the snare every 3rd beats. The guitars play the same quarter notes at a slightly different time signature (still 4/4 but sounds like a stepped beat because of the note groupings/metres they use) and they don't really sync up until the 64th beat. This is either discordant or challenging in a positive way to listen to; depends on how abstract you want to go.



You might know the song for the Wolf of Wall St mashup video:



There's this whole genre that spawned off the Mesuggah djent sound, where guitarists just pushed the envelope. Tosin Abasi from Animals As Leaders has no business being as good as he is; the man is a god. Misha Mansoor started out on 7string.org (under the name "Bulb") before getting Periphery up and running. Then there's the guy from the HAARP Machine who records stuff at half-speed so he appears better than he is.

Lost have you tried out metalcore or deathcore?

 

I've enjoyed what little dark ambient I'm listening to but it seems to draw some themes from metal but is it a sub genre?

edit:

/\ How many strings does that guitar have? Eight?

 

Yep. They detune it to E and A, so it goes E A E A D G B E.

From Guitar World:

What’s your advice for 6-string players who wish to expand their skill to 8-string?
Abasi: The first step might be to try a 7-string. The extra string really does add a new, inspiring element to the instrument. Jump to 8-string, and now you have bass range. We keep the top six strings in standard guitar tuning, the seventh tuned down to B, and the eighth tuned to the same low E as on a bass guitar. I really like that amount of low end. It’s really gratifying.
Also, the advantage of that tuning is that if you are barring, say, the 5th fret, you have root-5-root—or A-E-A—on the lowest strings, and you can still fret standard fifth position A voicings on the higher strings, as you would on a regular guitar. And, whether it’s being able to play wide-ranging lines without having to shift positions, or voicing a chord that’s extremely rich and dispersed because you can hold eight strings at once, or being able to do three-octave arpeggios in one position, the tuning is quite convenient.

 

**** me.

edit: Ender do you play?

 

Bass mate, yeah.

 

Nah, it's usually filed under a derivative of industrial and it's pretty easy to find dark ambient acts without any obvious metal influences. I think the reason the line can appear blurry is because so many BM acts dabble in it or put out entire albums in the style.

 

Yeah I've wondered at what point dark just means dark and not metal just because….dark.

Ender Sai, do you finger or pick?

 

Pick.

And as Ramza says, it's a subset of industrial (or an offshoot rather). People like Lustmord are heavily linked to the scene and became professional off urgings from Throbbing Gristle members if memory serves.

 

This thread should culminate in a jam session- recorded live and streamed.

 

For me there was only one album that was worthy of coin this year > Asphyx's Incoming Death. I do not know how the heck Martin Van Drunen's voice is not utterly destroyed from 30 years of growling and screaming but he sounds even better now than he did back in the early days of Pestilence and his first go at Asphyx back in the early 90s. But the utterly catchy, ridiculously heavy riffs, some goofball lyrics (they kind of thrive on writing stuff that can be silly or somewhat serious) and Martin being on point awesome (though I wish he'd just let his silver and white locks hang out. We know you're 50 and you can out scream people half your age Martin!) makes me so darn happy. Yeah, I love that man's howling.

I've been metal since 1979 - Black Sabbath > then Motorhead (holy crap when Ace of Spades landed - that was such a game changer) > Venom > Hellhammer & Celtic Frost > Slayer > Morbid Angel & the whole Florida and tri State Death metal scene > Bolt Thrower, Asphyx etc. For a long time, it was my way to cope with a sometimes painful childhood (literally) and just way to release my anger. Being involved with the death metal scene here and across the world was great fun. Though I always had fun with Bolt Thrower, Asphyx, early Celtic Frost and I've gone back to having fun now.

Funny, I was woken up a couple of nights ago by Ozzy's Over The Mountain which I haven't listened to since Randy Rhoads' untimely passing in early 1982. And hearing it again for the first time in 35 years, I'm like dang, that's a good song. The riffs and solo make it more metal than most of Ozzy's solo tunes and it makes me remember how talented Randy was. Plus the lyrics could totally fit Doctor Strange.

Ah, drone. While I understand the intent and respect those who play and enjoy it, it doesn't really call to impatient me. Impatient me needs fast, dead heavy and fun (okay, I can some slow songs as long as I like the band doing it). I feel the same way about extreme doom: felt like I had to like stuff like Electric Wizard because Liz from 13 wound up in EW and I still dig 13 (though nothing she's done since). There was a time in my life when I loved ultra slow, lurch tonal stuff that, but not now. And you can add Black Metal to no thank you for me too. After Celtic Frost and Necrovore, I gave the whole Satanic thing the boot (never did like Norwegian Black Metal) except for Decide who are just ridiculous in all the right ways (says she who was nearly hit with rotting meat at one of their early shows YAY).

I think heavy metal can be defined as intense and powerful music. There are so many different sub-genres and this is why it continues to evolve and attract new fans. There's something for everyone. For me, if it's heavy, catchy and fun I'll give it a whirl; I admit I'm old school and I'm 100% cool with that. Tickled pink that Van Drunen is still screaming, Karl reunited with Whale for a Bolt Thrower-ish band and somehow hope that Martin Ain does something else because Triptykon is waaaaay too bleak for me. Yeah, I'm picky but I respect other people's likes and dislikes.

 

Question then Lok - did you ever get into ISIS?

 

Ender Sai > I've heard them but I was more of an industrial metal person than drone. For my ridiculous history in extreme metal, I admit there are many bands I may have heard once or twice or not at all. I do not think it would be fair to judge them on a couple of songs.

BTW, I just came across this... LOL this is so Obituary (Don Tardy feeding a cat etc.)

 

Well, my history with this genre started with Yngwie Malmsteen's albums from the '80's (an odd place to start, apparently). After that, I started getting into traditional heavy metal and NWOBHM stuff like Iron Maiden, Tygers of Pan Tang, Saxon, Motorhead (first album I listened to was Another Perfect Day), Judas Priest, Tokyo Blade, Black Sabbath, Manilla Road, etc. Then I got into a lot of U.S. power metal like Crimson Glory, Liege Lord, Running Wild, Virgin Steele, Helstar, early Fates Warning, early Queensryche, Cirith Ungol, Sanctuary, Savatage, etc. I also got more into doom with St. Vitus and Candlemass. With progressive metal, I started listening to Symphony X and Dream Theater. As for death and black metal, it astonishes me to this day how good of a gateway Orchid by Opeth was for both. I actually kind of had to work backwards a bit with Venom, Celtic Frost and Bathory. And the rest is history.

 

There is no odd place to start with Metal.


Speaking of Power Metal, not sure if Nasty Savage will actually record another album next year, but if they do, I'm there. Was delighted to see they reformed (again).

 

Oh, yeah. Forgot to mention Nasty Savage as well. Indulgence was a cool album.

 

Yeah it was. I still listen to some tracks every now and again. Nearly got my jaw broken on that tour too (not the band's fault but )

 

Well, I'm glad nothing bad happened.

 

Still, it would have been a lot more metal if your jaw actually had been broken.

 

You're not trve until you get a bone broken in the pit.

 

Never had a broken bone just a few bumps and bruises. But mine came from punk rock shows, not metal.

 

Lok, ISIS aren't drone. They're post metal; natural sons of the sound that Godflesh and most obviously Neurosis pioneered.

 

There's nothing troo or kvlt about the pit as it requires you to go see a band that is capable of touring, like a sell-out.

 

I don't know, I've seen some very serious pits develop at some very small clubs with local acts playing.

 

I've seen pits develop at small clubs that become the club. Like, everybody, all of it. 1987. Fun times.