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Author Topic: Metal Sub-Genre Epicness  (Read 28673 times)
Luna
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This land is peaceful, its inhabitants kind...


« Reply #90 on: November 18, 2012, 08:10:15 PM »

Wow, Luners, I had NO idea! It's crazy that you know who Mark Jansen is and I didn't figure out that you liked Epica! Jeepers...

What's your favorite song on Design Your Universe? And what do you think about Requiem for the Indifferent?

Burn to a Cinder.

I love it! It's not one of my favorites of all time, but I love it. Serenade of Self-Destruction is probably my favorite song off of Requiem.
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TheHobbitofDune
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« Reply #91 on: November 18, 2012, 08:13:26 PM »

It's too calm and serene. I need the music to be more aggressive, but not to the point of brutality (because only angsty teenagers go that far Wink) Personally, my favorite kind of metal, and music in general, is: Heavy synthesizer usage to create the atmosphere for a song, set the mood, be the backdrop, etc. Also, of course, good, tasteful riffs. Doesn't have to be technical, but it shouldn't be totally generic. The drums can also be simple, as long as it's tasteful and serves the song.

I also find that synthesizer + death metal style harsh vocals = epic win. It really creates a sort of mythical adventure in your head, especially when the lyrics are about fantasy. An extremely good example of this is the highly underrated album Eden Fire by Sonic Syndicate. Another example is the band Children of Bodom, though they do exclude the fantasy lyrics.

That kind of music is a great blend of both general forms of metal. It's not too heavy, but not too light, like the usage of ingredients in a perfect cooking recipe....

That is why I don't like symphonic metal. It's too soft. Though I think that's mainly just due to the female vocals.
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Luna
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Force Alignment: 550
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This land is peaceful, its inhabitants kind...


« Reply #92 on: November 18, 2012, 08:20:03 PM »

Operatic female vocals make me happy. Symph metal lyrics also tend to deal with much deeper subjects than most music these days, which is also a huge reason I listen to it. Aggression doesn't necessarily matter that much to me, I prefer serenity for the most part (although I do listen to a decent amount of death metal). It reminds me a little of epic poetry as well, although I'm not entirely sure why.
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TheHobbitofDune
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Force Alignment: 473
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« Reply #93 on: November 18, 2012, 08:31:20 PM »

Operatic female vocals make me happy. Symph metal lyrics also tend to deal with much deeper subjects than most music these days, which is also a huge reason I listen to it. Aggression doesn't necessarily matter that much to me, I prefer serenity for the most part (although I do listen to a decent amount of death metal). It reminds me a little of epic poetry as well, although I'm not entirely sure why.

That is a major reason why I listen to the bands that I love: the lyrics are intelligent and deep. Though I will agree that symphonic metal has even deeper lyrics.

Personally, and to use Sonic Syndicate as my example again, I think female vocals should be used more as a melodic device when the moment is right. On their album, Eden Fire, SS had their bassist, Karin, sing on one of the songs, and her operatic vocals were such a contrast to the consistent barrage of harsh vocals that it really left me breathless. I don't feel the same when I have a female singer singing in my ear for multiple songs on end without stopping.

Though that isn't to say that I don't enjoy clean vocals. I love clean vocals, but I prefer a male's clean vocals because they are more suited to the aggressiveness of the music I listen to, while still retaining the serenity needed to pull off ballad-type songs or certain clean sections in songs.

Wow, I think writing all of that really opened my brain to what I really like. That's the funny thing about writing freely, isn't it? Cheesy
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ChaosMidge
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I am small annoying fly! Hear me roar!


« Reply #94 on: November 18, 2012, 09:33:28 PM »

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MY ENTIRE REPLY WENT AWAY!!!! I'm gonna cry now... and I have to rewrite it all...

As for symphonic bands mostly having female singers, I bring Kamelot to the stand. Since their formation, they have had three singers, all male, all operatically trained in one manner or another. Their clean vocals are amazing and if they need someone to do growls, they bring someone else in or they have one of the other guys in the band to it. The lead singer for The Agonist, incidentally, is female and she has AMAZING growls for a chick. She's able to get both sides of the spectrum, clean and growls, and it's good.

Tarja Turunen, the ex-singer for Nightwish and the biggest diva on the planet, sounds amazing in Nightwish because she has the ability to change the style of her clean vocals so you're not just hearing the same thing over and over again. The band also has the skill to make all the songs sound different in one way or another. Also, if they need other vocals (male) they just use the guys in the band who also have good voices (I Wish I Had an Angel and Romanticide, for example). I find the bands in which everyone has multiple talents, from singing to instrumentals to lyrics and songwriting, are the best ones. If two band mates can switch places and make something totally new sounding, I believe that is a quality of a good band.
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Give light side or dark side points depending on the reason you're giving them. I'd like to see which side I end up on...
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Libby, no sound: GB
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TheHobbitofDune
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Force Alignment: 473
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« Reply #95 on: November 18, 2012, 10:14:46 PM »

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MY ENTIRE REPLY WENT AWAY!!!! I'm gonna cry now... and I have to rewrite it all...

As for symphonic bands mostly having female singers, I bring Kamelot to the stand. Since their formation, they have had three singers, all male, all operatically trained in one manner or another. Their clean vocals are amazing and if they need someone to do growls, they bring someone else in or they have one of the other guys in the band to it. The lead singer for The Agonist, incidentally, is female and she has AMAZING growls for a chick. She's able to get both sides of the spectrum, clean and growls, and it's good.

Tarja Turunen, the ex-singer for Nightwish and the biggest diva on the planet, sounds amazing in Nightwish because she has the ability to change the style of her clean vocals so you're not just hearing the same thing over and over again. The band also has the skill to make all the songs sound different in one way or another. Also, if they need other vocals (male) they just use the guys in the band who also have good voices (I Wish I Had an Angel and Romanticide, for example). I find the bands in which everyone has multiple talents, from singing to instrumentals to lyrics and songwriting, are the best ones. If two band mates can switch places and make something totally new sounding, I believe that is a quality of a good band.

I already am a fan of The Agonist, but some of their songs are just brutal for the sake of being brutal, which I dislike.

Also, as a fan of Nightwish, I already know about Marco, and I do love his voice, but if they used him more, I would be happier. Than again, he did get two whole songs to himself on Dark Passion Play, except one of the songs was just because Anette got sick. By the way, he has always been there only male singer, except for in their debut album, when they had a guy from another band come in and do vocals.

That last bit is also why I love Trivium. Their lead guitarist growls, their rhythm guitarist growls, screams, and sings, and their bassist sings. The fact that they all switch off on vocals a lot, harmonize, and still manage to not miss a beat in their playing is beyond amazing. Plus, both guitarists down pick faster than freaking James Hetfield. If that doesn't prove how good they are, not much else can.

« Last Edit: November 18, 2012, 10:19:39 PM by TheHobbitofDune » Logged

Luna
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This land is peaceful, its inhabitants kind...


« Reply #96 on: November 18, 2012, 10:50:10 PM »

I don't normally like male clean vocals in metal. In some cases they actually get on my nerves. I do tend to prefer male harsh vocals, but not all the time... Iwrestledabearonce, for example, has my favorite harsh vocals out of any band.
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ChaosMidge
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I am small annoying fly! Hear me roar!


« Reply #97 on: November 19, 2012, 02:08:52 AM »

I just plain tend not to like harsh vocals. Mayhap it's something to do with me being a chick? I like prettier things? Idk, SPARKLEY.

*ahem*

But I do enjoy clean male vocals, Roy Khan and Tommy Karevik to name two, as well as Lauri from Metsatoll and the guys from Tyr and Korpiklaani. They do mixed clean/harsh tho. So. *shrug*
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Give light side or dark side points depending on the reason you're giving them. I'd like to see which side I end up on...
I like making up nicknames for people. Wink
Aeon V3 LE w/ Sound: SRD
Libby, no sound: GB
Reaper w/ Sound, FoC: PO w/ FO

TheHobbitofDune
Knight Commander
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Force Alignment: 473
Posts: 6097


« Reply #98 on: November 19, 2012, 02:23:15 AM »

Roland Johansson's clean vocals make me turn gay. Seriously, whenever I listen to him... oh man.

...

Sorry.

But seriously, that man has the greatest clean vocals I've ever heard in my life. Richard Sjunnesson also has some of the best harsh vocals ever. Put the two together and you get nothing but win. Thankfully they were both lead vocalists in Sonic Syndicate. Now they are both the lead vocalists of The Unguided. It's also pretty awesome because Roland plays guitar now, aside from just doing vocals, and his solos are amazing. I love his use of more unorthodox scale shapes. SS is unfortunately kind of dead now  Cry stupid record company trying to turn them into poppy sell-outs. Sigh. Glad those two, and Richard's brother (ex-guitarist for SS) decided to form a new band.

I know nobody cares, but I'm still hyper.
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