Written by [user id=4365] on 26.06.2010 at 23:01

Probably doom, purely because it often seems as though it's exempt from the judgement of originality. Whereas other non-doom bands are often chastised for sounding like others, doom seems to consistently bring out the same types of band and music without being penalised for it. Particularly funeral doom come to think of it, in the many years it's been around there doesn't seem to have been much evolution (I'm sure this is where the doom enthusiasts will jump right in to "correct" me) but as long as they keep churning out the slow, mournful riffs, perhaps with the odd atmospheric keyboard subtext for variety people are happy to praise them. Maybe because doom has never been a particularly cool genre, seems the style and its fans are happy to stick with what they know.

I'm not saying there aren't doom bands that show ingenuity, just there's little precedent to mark down doom bands that are more or less doing the same thing over and over; they seem to fall under a different criterion unlike "cool" genres like black and thrash where people tend to jump on them if sound vaguely like anything else.

For that reason doom, or at least the more extreme end, is one of the most consistent.

I think there's a case for 2 here, Prog because it's almost sure to have the originality, and then Doom for the opposite. As for evolution I completely agree doom experiences no evolution, or little evolution. However I'm not doom fan really. Thus being said, I think either argument works, oddly for opposite reasons.

I'd say all the genres I've heard are suffering from the fact that 90% of all bands/artists suck, give or take a little. there are so many crappy and generic doom bands, and there are so many crappy and generic prog bands. Go to MA and click random band a few times. 90% of everything you get is going to suck.

I'm inclined to say that black metal suffers the most from this, but that largely comes down to nothing but personal taste, as well as the fact that if you were to go by the number of bands playing it, bm is by far the most popular genre of metal.

Then again, the large number of crap bedroom bands isn't helping the genre as a whole. I guess this comes with the fact that black metal can be pretty much the easiest metal genre to play (and it has a tradition of one man bands which saves little kids the trouble of putting an actual band together). It is also, however, the hardest metal genre to not suck at playing.

I think Technical Death, so i voted for Death not "Other"

Written by ForeverDarkWoods on 23.04.2011 at 13:26

I'd say all the genres I've heard are suffering from the fact that 90% of all bands/artists suck, give or take a little. there are so many crappy and generic doom bands, and there are so many crappy and generic prog bands. Go to MA and click random band a few times. 90% of everything you get is going to suck.

I'm inclined to say that black metal suffers the most from this, but that largely comes down to nothing but personal taste, as well as the fact that if you were to go by the number of bands playing it, bm is by far the most popular genre of metal.

Then again, the large number of crap bedroom bands isn't helping the genre as a whole. I guess this comes with the fact that black metal can be pretty much the easiest metal genre to play (and it has a tradition of one man bands which saves little kids the trouble of putting an actual band together). It is also, however, the hardest metal genre to not suck at playing.

Don't really agree here, that's a very old argument. The "bedroom band" barely exists on any relevant plane anymore. Sure there might be nobodies still doing it but few people take it seriously because 99% of people know now that it's to be largely ignored and that other 1% are to be mocked from afar. Black metal is prone to a far more stringent level of judgement and critiquing quality amongst fans which is probably why there is so much diversity within the genre itself, as well as the malleability of the style. So nah, I don't think those bands you speak of are doing any harm to the genre. As well as being a measure of what's not really acceptable they're just maintaining the image of schlocky appeal it once had but it's not the same genre as it was back in the early 90's and that, not with the change of lyrical focus, production techniques and playing styles. It's taken on a level of sophistication that I'd argue death and thrash hasn't but probably doom and prog has always had.

Take a generic sounding, well produced doom band with growls and slow riffs and you can guarantee that if it ticks all the right boxes it'll get a decent amount of praise from fans and probably critics. Take the equivalent of a black metal band, questionable production, punk-structured, tremelo-picking et al and I doubt it will see the light of day anywhere.

Quote:
bm is by far the most popular genre of metal.

If you go to MA and do an advanced search by genre you'll find there are more death metal bands than black metal (nearly 27,000 to 19,000 respectively, and nearly as many thrash bands as black and only a paltry 5000 for doom) and seeing as death and thrash metal are a far less evolved and varied field, and techically newer in death metal's case, I'd say they're probably far more prone to the generic bedroom band than black metal. Old-school revivalist death or thrash? Fuck that shit, that's just a way of re-badging old crap because no one can come up with something new.

Anyway in my opinion it's the DSBM genre which could conceivably be bringing black metal down. It's so fucking trite and one dimensional. Again, that's probably personal preference but if I see the words "depression," "suicide," or "sadness" amongst the themes then I'll probably avoid it like the plague.

"Old-school revivalist death or thrash? Fuck that shit, that's just a way of re-badging old crap because no one can come up with something new."

Depends on how good it is, just depends. Sometimes they do put a nice twist on it.

" and techically newer in death metal's case, I'd say they're probably far more prone to the generic bedroom band than black metal."

Spot on!

Written by Yasmine on 23.04.2011 at 18:24

"Old-school revivalist death or thrash? Fuck that shit, that's just a way of re-badging old crap because no one can come up with something new."

Depends on how good it is, just depends. Sometimes they do put a nice twist on it.

Yeah true to an extent, I'm coming around on a few that try a bit harder, like Mitochondrion who share a few similarities to the older scene but inject it with something a bit fresh.

Probably doom. Not that hard being consistent in quality when you don't put out anything new ever

Thrash. I don't think I've ever heard a horribly terrible thrash band. But then again, I don't go too obscure.

Written by king_matt on 25.04.2011 at 07:24

Thrash. I don't think I've ever heard a horribly terrible thrash band. But then again, I don't go too obscure.

Sorry to end your blisfully ignorant world, but...

I want my 34 seconds back, Mr.Void......

All genres have good and bad times, but for me the progressive is the most consistent

I'd vote prog.

Because it's consistently bad.

Nah, in all seriousness I'd go with doom (especially when you get into funeral or death doom, and offshoots like drone and noise). Also, the genre hasn't yet been tainted by tens of thousands of bands watering down the overall quality.

Voted DM. Certainly going by this year and years past, it seems to always produce good albums, even though I prefer BM much more, I get disappointed more with it. But that's for the simple reason that you enjoy more in genres you don't particularly like but don't outwardly dislike. Whereas with genres you like, your expectations are high.

I'm more a Technical Death Fan.. but I voted prog, since I heard alot of consistent prog-metal bands and I believe they always try to find something new to play or add to their sound, thats enjoyable. Also, most of them (not all) are quality musicians.

Written by Guib on 25.04.2011 at 17:32

I'm more a Technical Death Fan.. but I voted prog, since I heard alot of consistent prog-metal bands and I believe they always try to find something new to play or add to their sound, thats enjoyable. Also, most of them (not all) are quality musicians.

I agree, so suck it up Troy!!!! lol

Written by Troy Killjoy on 25.04.2011 at 13:40


Nah, in all seriousness I'd go with doom (especially when you get into funeral or death doom, and offshoots like drone and noise). Also, the genre hasn't yet been tainted by tens of thousands of bands watering down the overall quality.

that's how i'd cast my vote for pretty much the same reasons. lack of popularity is the single biggest (less fans means less knock-off bands) with the wide scope of doom's subgenres playing a contributing factor.

initially i would have responded power metal is the worst, but after further deliberation it's probably BM... any half-ass fan can start a one man 'project', a plague i don't think has descended into other genres yet.

it's also funny Death Metal got mentioned. that genre got so bad in the mid-90s with lame copycats and diluted talent pools that i stopped bothering with it for almost a decade. i'd get the new Morbid Angels when they came out, but that was it.

Despite "Thrash Queen" I'll say thrash, only if we're taking into account the ones every metal fan knows and not the obscure terrible ones tucked into some far off corner, or the new wave thrash bands since those are pretty much novelty acts that can't go a single song without reminding you that they're thrash metal, with the exception of maybe Evile (but even they did a song called thrasher). Now my reasoning behind choosing thrash is that in thrash there are bands like Testament, Exodus, Overkill and others that have very consistent track records. Sure all the big four members have had their ups and downs, but the general group of thrash metal bands is pretty consistent. That being said this was a difficult decision as all genres of metal have inconsistencies.

I also voted for doom for the same reasons as BitterCOld and Troy Gallant. Whenever I buy a doom album, it's usually worth at least a 7/10 IMO. I'm not saying that I haven't heard any bad or mediocre doom metal albums, but the genre seems to be more consistently good than all of the others.

Written by Nigel Peppercock on 25.04.2011 at 20:14

Despite "Thrash Queen" I'll say thrash, only if we're taking into account the ones every metal fan knows and not the obscure terrible ones tucked into some far off corner, or the new wave thrash bands since those are pretty much novelty acts that can't go a single song without reminding you that they're thrash metal, with the exception of maybe Evile (but even they did a song called thrasher).

but we are taking everything into account. if everyone were to start tossing up qualifiers there wouldn't be any inconsistent/mediocre music.

Just imagine the following discussion:

"clearly Black Metal is the most consistent, only if we're taking into account Norwegian bands who released albums between 1991 and 1995... "

"no way, dude. Death Metal is the bestest ever. But only if we're talking about bands that released albums between 1989 and 1993 (before the corporate buy in) that were mixed by Scott Burns at Morrisound..."

blah blah blah ad infinitum.

Written by BitterCOld on 25.04.2011 at 19:52

initially i would have responded power metal is the worst, but after further deliberation it's probably BM... any half-ass fan can start a one man 'project', a plague i don't think has descended into other genres yet.

Even as an avid black metal fan, I'd have to agree with this, although I do think death metal has even less to offer in terms of consistency.

Written by [user id=111774] on 25.04.2011 at 07:47

Written by king_matt on 25.04.2011 at 07:24

Thrash. I don't think I've ever heard a horribly terrible thrash band. But then again, I don't go too obscure.

Sorry to end your blisfully ignorant world, but...

Oh please, every genre has awful bands like this.

Written by king_matt on 08.05.2011 at 23:35

Oh please, every genre has awful bands like this.

Yeah I know, you just said that you'd never heard an awful thrash band. I voted for thrash as most consistent also, but there are some truly repulsive bands in there. Besides, everybody needs to hear Thrash Queen once in their life.

Written by [user id=111774] on 08.05.2011 at 23:38

Written by king_matt on 08.05.2011 at 23:35

Oh please, every genre has awful bands like this.

Yeah I know, you just said that you'd never heard an awful thrash band. I voted for thrash as most consistent also, but there are some truly repulsive bands in there. Besides, everybody needs to hear Thrash Queen once in their life.

Haha, I'm glad you showed me, I needed a good laugh

Written by [user id=111774] on 25.04.2011 at 07:47

Written by king_matt on 25.04.2011 at 07:24

Thrash. I don't think I've ever heard a horribly terrible thrash band. But then again, I don't go too obscure.

Sorry to end your blisfully ignorant world, but...

i died a little inside watching that heh...

I think doom metal is the genre where untalented bands are most listenable

Written by [user id=111774] on 25.04.2011 at 07:47

Written by king_matt on 25.04.2011 at 07:24

Thrash. I don't think I've ever heard a horribly terrible thrash band. But then again, I don't go too obscure.

Sorry to end your blisfully ignorant world, but...

Kim McAuliff got drunk again, did she?

Written by ForeverDarkWoods on 23.04.2011 at 13:26

I'd say all the genres I've heard are suffering from the fact that 90% of all bands/artists suck, give or take a little. there are so many crappy and generic doom bands, and there are so many crappy and generic prog bands. Go to MA and click random band a few times. 90% of everything you get is going to suck.

I'm inclined to say that black metal suffers the most from this, but that largely comes down to nothing but personal taste, as well as the fact that if you were to go by the number of bands playing it, bm is by far the most popular genre of metal.

Then again, the large number of crap bedroom bands isn't helping the genre as a whole. I guess this comes with the fact that black metal can be pretty much the easiest metal genre to play (and it has a tradition of one man bands which saves little kids the trouble of putting an actual band together). It is also, however, the hardest metal genre to not suck at playing.

Black metal is by far the most consistently shit genre. The amount of cack out there is unreal, and it's not just the one man "bedroom black metal either". There are so many crap bands (as in not one man stuff) especially folk black. The confusion between good raw sound with slightly loose playing and crap/weak sound with poor musicianship for the sake of it doesn't help.

I also agree that metal in general is saturated with bad stuff: I don't know if it's quite 90% but I'd say roughly 50% of the new bands I hear will suck.

I mostly listen to extreme stuff so in my experience death metal is probably the most consistent in terms of good quality. A lot of power metal is pretty laughable (Dragonforce... lame) and most doom metal is just plain boring.

Written by [user id=111172] on 23.12.2011 at 16:33

Power Metal


Because Power Metal makes me feel good

How is that being consistent? Unless it consistently makes you feel good but it still doesn't answer the question

Written by [user id=2943] on 23.12.2011 at 14:38
Black metal is by far the most consistently shit genre...death metal is probably the most consistent in terms of good quality.

It's a matter of tastes of course, but even as a fan of death metal I can see black metal progressing still to this day in a plethora of directions, while death metal is still drowning in revivalist junk or getting... more technical.

Progressive Metal. It's so much more complex, and just better than all other genres. There is no such thing as a bad prog band, because it's all just expression. Can't play an instrument? It's all good, put a prog label on it and people will think you're artistic. All of prog is different, and there is no genericism, or trending. And you can't go wrong with a concept album!