Taking Hard Rock/Metal seriously

[Dissily Mordentroge]

In my younger years as a classical only snob I looked down on all Hard Rock & Metal as inferior rubbish for juveniles. You’d think attending a Stones concert seated under the stage and rolling joints for the band in my late teens would have had me see the light but it didn’t . Then something odd hit me in my mid 50’s. I can’t remember which band it was that knocked my brains out but something clicked. OK, there’s still a lot of metal etc that to my ears is just noise to annoy mummy and daddy with from behind a locked bedroom door but now I recognise some ( still not all) of the harder stuff as emotionally powerful, downright serious and as well crafted and skilfully played as some of the great symphonies. Sadly though too high a percentage is badly recorded. Maybe by recording engineers who think it doesn’t matter much?

[Jerome]

Hard rock I can take - in fact I like it a lot. Metal does nothing for me. Ruby's brother is some sort of serious scientist type - he is big into metal stuff. Can't remember what he does but it's quite specialist and complicated by all accounts.

[Dissily Mordentroge]

Hard rock I can take - in fact I like it a lot. Metal does nothing for me. Ruby's brother is some sort of serious scientist type - he is big into metal stuff. Can't remember what he does but it's quite specialist and complicated by all accounts.

I have to confess I’m never really sure where the border between hard rock and metal is.
Someone might like to explain it with a few clips?

[Ruby]

^^I read somewhere that the constructs used in ‘classical’ music and in heavy metal are similar whereas rock is rooted in the blues. Does that make sense? I asked little brother and he said it was the complexity of metal that does it for him – the layer upon layer of sound - he doesn't mind rock, but he's addicted to heavy metal. (Btw Jerome – he’s a PhD Environmental Science, specialising in Aquatic Ecology and Diatom Taxonomy – in other words he studies single cell organisms. He also turns beautiful pipes – smoking ones, as a hobby and does other strange things like ‘knitting’ a chainmail vest and hood. Funnily enough – he was telling me that a band member from one of his other preferred metalhead outfits has taken some time out to complete his doctorate in the very same field. Scientists are clearly dark and dodgy characters! )

I don’t really understand why growling is required, except in this instance I can’t imagine the type of vocal that might work instead. If it were an operatic vocal, which might be the only kind loud enough to compete with the instruments, it would completely change the whole thing … hmmm … I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to get into this stuff and probably not gonna try too hard – I don’t mind the actual music on this though … from Jos’s favourite Finnish growlers’ most recent album, Insomnium …




 
And for the helluvit – I find this clip quite entertaining – Bruce Dickinson with Ian Anderson & Co. – a heavy metal vocalist to match that heavy metal instrument! Lol! Oh yes, and tambourine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTgZatpr1L8 . Actually, I wonder what the Insomnium number would sound like with Bruce belting out the vocal??

[Dissily Mordentroge]

^^I read somewhere that the constructs used in ‘classical’ music and in heavy metal are similar whereas rock is rooted in the blues. Does that make sense? I asked little brother and he said it was the complexity of metal that does it for him – the layer upon layer of sound - he doesn't mind rock, but he's addicted to heavy metal. (Btw Jerome – he’s a PhD Environmental Science, specialising in Aquatic Ecology and Diatom Taxonomy – in other words he studies single cell organisms. He also turns beautiful pipes – smoking ones, as a hobby and does other strange things like ‘knitting’ a chainmail vest and hood. Funnily enough – he was telling me that a band member from one of his other preferred metalhead outfits has taken some time out to complete his doctorate in the very same field. Scientists are clearly dark and dodgy characters! )

I don’t really understand why growling is required, except in this instance I can’t imagine the type of vocal that might work instead. If it were an operatic vocal, which might be the only kind loud enough to compete with the instruments, it would completely change the whole thing … hmmm … I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to get into this stuff and probably not gonna try too hard – I don’t mind the actual music on this though … from Jos’s favourite Finnish growlers’ most recent album, Insomnium …




 
And for the helluvit – I find this clip quite entertaining – Bruce Dickinson with Ian Anderson & Co. – a heavy metal vocalist to match that heavy metal instrument! Lol! Oh yes, and tambourine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTgZatpr1L8 . Actually, I wonder what the Insomnium number would sound like with Bruce belting out the vocal??

Really impressed by this band. I even like the gravelly vocals but they did make it almost impossible to understand what was being sung. So, I dug up the lyrics on line “-
Heart Like A Grave"

Sound of the waves
Song of the woeful wind
Beauty of yearning
The tune of my heart

For once there was a time
When I sat by your side
And right before our eyes
The world was open wide

Days of youth are long since gone
Never return to return again
But a long slow descent left anymore
The waning years of heartache and regret

And yet the winds sing
They sing the fairest tune
And yet the waves sigh
They sigh out the pain

And since you set out
To reach for your hopes and dreams
I'll stay here with this hurt inside
For with these wounded wings
I never left this barren soil
Where all my wishes slowly fade away

Days of youth are long since gone
Never return to return again
But a long slow descent left anymore
The waning years of heartache and regret

Do you still remember?
Would you still believe?
That this blackened soul of mine
Once was untarnished

Years of disappointment
And disillusion
All I see in the mirror now
Is an old man with a heart like a grave

Do you still remember?
Would you still believe?
That this blackened soul of mine
Once was untarnished

Problem is taking account of the video itself the words have me more confused about what kind of story was being told.
Anyhow, this is a band I’ll make a point of following.

---

The introduction is really effective. Reminds me of the intro to ‘Disturged’s
 ‘The Sounds of Silence’ except the vocalist there is easy to understand. In itself an interesting song as this band is normally very heavy metal but in this clip the performance is close to being operatic.



The software running this forum drives me nuts. Allowing only one clip per post makes no sense to me.

[SteveO]

p[e of great music regardless of the genre ! Opeth and many others are similar !^^I read somewhere that the constructs used in ‘classical’ music and in heavy metal are similar whereas rock is rooted in the blues. Does that make sense? I asked little brother and he said it was the complexity of metal that does it for him – the layer upon layer of sound - he doesn't mind rock, but he's addicted to heavy metal. (Btw Jerome – he’s a PhD Environmental Science, specialising in Aquatic Ecology and Diatom Taxonomy – in other words he studies single cell organisms. He also turns beautiful pipes – smoking ones, as a hobby and does other strange things like ‘knitting’ a chainmail vest and hood. Funnily enough – he was telling me that a band member from one of his other preferred metalhead outfits has taken some time out to complete his doctorate in the very same field. Scientists are clearly dark and dodgy characters! )

I don’t really understand why growling is required, except in this instance I can’t imagine the type of vocal that might work instead. If it were an operatic vocal, which might be the only kind loud enough to compete with the instruments, it would completely change the whole thing … hmmm … I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to get into this stuff and probably not gonna try too hard – I don’t mind the actual music on this though … from Jos’s favourite Finnish growlers’ most recent album, Insomnium …




 
And for the helluvit – I find this clip quite entertaining – Bruce Dickinson with Ian Anderson & Co. – a heavy metal vocalist to match that heavy metal instrument! Lol! Oh yes, and tambourine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTgZatpr1L8 . Actually, I wonder what the Insomnium number would sound like with Bruce belting out the vocal??

---

^I remember the praise this song got when it was released. I still prefer the original. 

How do we classify this one ? All kinds of stuff happening here during the ultimate connection of performer and audience fans !