So May 9th, my best friend and I were talking about musicians in our area and how they are never dedicated, yet him and I are indeed very dedicated, and the best in my towns generation. We had this idea of creating a band together.

The only problem is, his influences lie in Metalcore and Punk, while my influences lie in extreme metal. What he said is we should compromise and combine our styles to make something that sounds awesome. I said ok and we are going to give it a shot, the only problem is we don't know much anything about incorporating different styles together. Any tips?

The band I was (is?) in had a guitarist that was most influenced Slash and Eddie Van Halen, our bassist was influenced by Flea. The trick is to learn theory and stay in the same key. Different styles can blend very well together if done properly.

Most of the people that I play with are influenced by blues, rock, old school heavy metal, indie, progressive rock, etc. while I draw a lot of my riffage from extreme metal as well. But this works well, because while they are laying down whatever it is they are playing, I can enjoy myself and do arpeggios, dissonant chords, and harmonies just like I would in extreme metal.

Like Nuclear Redneck said, as long you keep it in key and relative to the sound that you are playing, then anything can work. With that said, extreme metal bassist are also influenced by jazz, blues, soul etc. so my riffage works well over theirs.

Example, the band Shining... if you have listened to the guitar leads on the latest album, you might notice that doesn't sound that unique to metal, but actually, that guitarist is quoted by Shining's lead vocalist to have 'never approached or played metal before', but it fits in because emotions alike any genre is pretty universal IMO. A bassist for a rap group would probably play a hateful riff a little bit differently then a bassist in extreme metal, but the outcome is almost the same, just the technique is different.

For your case TJ, I know that you are into Death a lot. And I'm sure one of things you like doing is playing those sick riffs such as the ones off 'Scream bloody gore' that make you want to kill some nuns and bathe in their blood, this can work well to contrast riffs in core that are usually prone to being straightforward and somewhat groovey.

I think alot of bassist have at least a little jazz or blues influence and that usually works out well in metal, it tends to give some creativity to the band's sound overall instead of just having the bass keep the time like a dumbed down rythem guitar.

An idea is to look at some older metal bands, they kind of started out as boarderlining between other genres and eventually just created their own sound. Some newer Darkthrone has a very punkish feel to it, especially the drums, so just be creative and it should work out well.

You shouldn't bother too much with styles and influences and pretty words like that. You can argue about "styles" and "influences" till you're blue in the face and still get nowhere. Some people love putting labels on their jars - without realizing that labels are chains. I used to do that. I would write some gorgeous jewel of a piece and then ditch it, 'cause it didn't fit the labels I had set in advance.

You have to decide for yourself what's more important: the labels that you put onto your sound, or the sound itself? Just plug in, tune and PLAY! You can always label it later if you can't get over it. No one knows what music is anyway, so why bother?

Written by [user id=4223] on 16.05.2008 at 03:28

....I used to do that. I would write some gorgeous jewel of a piece and then ditch it, 'cause it didn't fit the labels I had set in advance.

...Just plug in, tune and PLAY! You can always label it later if you can't get over it. No one knows what music is anyway, so why bother?

I would have to agree with you here. It's quite often that a person would dismiss something potentially brilliant just because it doesn't sound derivative of a certain genre. It's a shame really, you shouldn't have to struggle to express yourself, artistic expression should come as an instinct rather narrowing down your abilities.

Written by [user id=4223] on 16.05.2008 at 03:28

You shouldn't bother too much with styles and influences and pretty words like that. You can argue about "styles" and "influences" till you're blue in the face and still get nowhere. Some people love putting labels on their jars - without realizing that labels are chains. I used to do that. I would write some gorgeous jewel of a piece and then ditch it, 'cause it didn't fit the labels I had set in advance.

You have to decide for yourself what's more important: the labels that you put onto your sound, or the sound itself? Just plug in, tune and PLAY! You can always label it later if you can't get over it. No one knows what music is anyway, so why bother?

Very true man. I can relate because I recently realized that labeling yourself can be restricting in ways you just said, and if you label yourself as a genre/sub-genre than others may have certain expectations. That's why we recently dumped the label of being "depressive bm" to just being black metal so we can do whatever sub-style we want without feeling limited.