New Anthrax Album

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Re: New Anthrax Album

Originally posted by markpb:
Megadeth, Slayer, Sacred Reich, Nuclear Assault, Metallica, Anthrax, Testament, they all just ran out of ideas and spark eventually, started to repeat themselves, and fell apart of their own accord. The last 3-4 albums by every band on that list basically sucked.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Did Sacred Reich even HAVE 4 albums? [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[StuTDavis]

Re: New Anthrax Album

markpb,

I was just making completely general statements, not trying to say that EVERY thrash 80s band had better songwriting and musicians than EVERY grunge or nu-metal band. I'd rather listen to Godsmack infinitely more than I'd like to listen to any Slayer, for instance. I'm not the kind of person who lumps things together so blindly like that, sorry you misunderstood my generalities.

Personally, since I have played the thrashy kinda music and have played other, more loose styles, I perceive a HUGE difference in the amount of difference in the "guitar playing ability" of one vs. the other. The amount of control it takes to create the right type of attack and sound, as well as the complex rhythm of, say, older Anthrax, I perceive as just being harder than something where you just hit a chord and let it ring out...especially if that chord is downtuned and mooshy sounding anyway--there is just much more room for error. And control is really all that technical ability boils down to--controlling yourself and controlling the guitar. Now, writing music, that's different...but playing an instrument is all based on control. I'm just a rhythm player, so that perception is only based on rhythm and, again, it's very general, based on overall stylistic differences in genres, rather than specific bands. Obviously, I haven't played every song from every band there's ever been. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

As far as having the same music style, the same types of songs, written over and over, I'd LOVE it! Have 10 bands take the same music from a song I love, just put different lyrics to it, as long as I like the lyrics and singer, I'll love the song. That's the reason I kept loving Anthrax during those years--because they DID do the same sound and style over and over. If they still made the same style songs, with the same sound, I'd still be loving them, but they don't. I don't think it's so odd to keep wanting and loving the exact same music style for years. Palm-muted chords? I'll listen to them all my life and never get tired of them. But, hey, that's just crazy ole me... [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Stu

[markb]

Re: New Anthrax Album

hehe thats why i put: (the ones who lasted long enough, that is) meaning long enough to release enough albums. I don't even know if Sacred Reich put out anything after The American Way (which sucked, of course) Did they have any good songs other than Surf Nicaragua and Death Squad??

[markb]

Re: New Anthrax Album

Stu

You suggested in your first reply to Jerry that grunge/numetal have "done" some thing to heavy music (i.e. ruined it), that it's a "trap" that bands have fallen into etc. I'm saying it hasn't done anything to it.Metal and hard rock can legitimately be any one of these styles, none of them are a trap. You will have your favorites of course. As far as technical requirements, I guess different bands have a sound they want to create and play accordingly. It won't affect the quality of the song either way. A song can be sh*tty and complicated or sh*tty and simple and vice versa it seems to me. If you enjoy the more demanding stuff, thats cool, but it isn't more "legit". Just remember, virtually all of those musicians know about 15% as much as any run of the mill jazz student, so complexity and sophistication is relative.

[StuTDavis]

Re: New Anthrax Album

Jerry,

Thanks for writing that. It's really interesting to me to hear peoples' explanations of why they like what they like, or, in your case, why they no longer like what they used to like hehe. I'm wondering...is it the acutal sound/music of older Anthrax, the lyrics/singing, or just everything about it that now kinda turns you off?

Here's how I am... Personally, I'm a weird kind of guitarist. I don't listen to anything just based on its guitar technical wizardry like a lot of guitarists. If I don't like the lyrics or singing, I won't listen to the song, no matter how good the guitar playing is, or how cool the riffs are. And I don't listen to a lot of the accepted "greats" (Like Randy Rhoads), not because they are not great guitarists, but because I just don't like the rest of the band or their songs hehe. And, I generally can't stand to listen to "instrumental guitarists", or most of the ones who try to sing themselves, or hire some dude to sing hehe.

Now, on that note, that's exactly why I do still love old Anthrax. I love the guitar sound, and the obvious, up-front "riffs". I've always loved Joey's singing (I do like Bush's voice too, don't get me wrong) because, unlike so many other metal singers, he really does have a very good strong "real singing voice". He's not screaming, he's not growling, his voice is rarely even raspy...and it just sounds good to me with those songs. Probably wouldn't go so well with SOWN, though, while Bush's sounds awesome to me on that album. And their lyrics, in general, were around more general, "timeless" ideas, vs. some of the other bands. They had songs around a wide variety of stuff, from comics to Stephen King novels, to discrimination, and general topics. Topics you don't have to be an angry, angst-ridden person to get into them or relate to them, like a lot of hard music. Like Metallica's "Kill Em All", for instance: several of the songs on there I thought were really cool when I was a pissed-off adolescent, I just think are damn cheezy and childish since I've been a rather happy adult hehehe. Even though, the cheezy Overkill stuff I used to love, I still love...because their stuff always seemed to be so intentionally ridiculous to me anyway hehehe.

But, for a lot of these same reasons, I can't get into much newer or different heavy music at all. A lot of it either gets so cheezy in subject to me, or I can't stand the singer's voice because so many of them just scream or growl. Even though a lot of the guitar work on some of the stuff out there is really cool...I hear it and just think "fire that singer and get someone who can sing! you'll have an awesome band!" hehehe. Honestly, pretty much ALL of the music and bands I used to like are either gone or have changed so much that I don't like them anymore. I've been listening to and playing guitar to pretty much the same CDs since about 1992--how sad is that? Hehehe... Eh, since you "admitted" some of your non-thrashy musical tastes, I'll list some of the music I can sorta stand to listen to--most of which are bands my wife likes, that I just kinda hung onto: some Korn, some Marilyn Manson, some (oh gawd) Linkin Park, I actually really like a lot of Rob Zombie's stuff, and the newer band that I like the most is Godsmack. But, none of that is anything I'm really much interested in learning to play on guitar hehehe.

Stu

[j2379]

Re: New Anthrax Album

one of the few 80's bands i still like. theyve changed but not gotten soft or poppy ala metallica.

[Jerry From Ghana]

Re: New Anthrax Album

Stu-

I'd say that it's the production, riffage, repetitiveness/lack of variety of said riffage and joey's style that keep me from reaching for the ole state of euphoria. I still do think that he sounds remarkably good on excerpts of Killer B's, especially on the Parasite cover. He put Gene to shame on that one!

Lyrics, for me, are among the least important factors to liking a band. Great lyrics will make me enjoy the music more, but horrible lyrics wouldn't stop me from loving it. I will agree with you that Anthrax's lyrics were among the best metal lyrics. I enjoyed both their serious and the humorous side. "In My World" comes to mind.

Guitar prowess is even less important [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
To be honest I enjoy more hearing great drumming and/or bass-playing than guitar heroics. I'll take Keith Richards over Randy Rhoads any day of the week (HERESY! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] )

The bedroom hack that I am, I think I've bothered to learn 60-70's or so solos in my day. probably 45-50 or those are maiden solos [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[StuTDavis]

Re: New Anthrax Album

markpb,

Oh, don't get me wrong, I don't really care about anyone's actual ability. The only thing that matters to me about listening to music is if the song I'm hearing sounds good to me. I wouldn't even begin to assume that I am qualified to officially rate the actual ability of someone's merit as a player. I just listen to what I listen to and evaluate it for what I like or don't like personally. I was only making observations on how "hard to play" the different styles were, based on my own experience--nothing more. Ideas of someone's so-called ability or lack thereof giving them "cred", or making them more "legit" are rather disgusting to me hehehe. They're just silly ideas especially to apply to something like music. In the most simple terms, I listen to what I like, only because I like it...and play the music I play only because I like to play it. There's absolutely nothing more to it than that.

I get what you're saying about the genres all basically having "done something" to wash out previous genres, in a way. Maybe my statements there sounded more like a conspiracy theory than I had intended hehehe. Using what you said to help explain what I meant, in those terms, and in one sense, every new "incarnation" of a musical style is, at least a subconscious way, intended and hoped to destroy the "incarnation" it evolved from. If I were in, say, Pearl Jam, I'd sure want to sell a lot of albums--as many as possible--and if people start to forget and abandon about the previous heavy music style, and those bands competing against me died off, I'd call that a success. Hey--limit the supply of alternatives, and, if people want to buy music, they're all the more likely to buy yours. Eventually, though, those bands that didn't die off, like anything that survives successfully, begin to evolve themselves. Thrash metal bands start to incorporate grunge characteristics...then nu-metal characteristics etc. Again, maybe this isn't an outwardly stated goal by the group of new "incarnation" bands, but bad sales for you is generally expected to turn over better sales for me, you know?

I can't really blame these bands for taking on these other characteristics, and I certainly don't have anything against people whose musical tastes change...it just sucks a big ole donkey rod to have all your fave bands change into something you don't like anymore, yaknow? And it sucks to not have heard anything produced after the early 90s that I have any interest in learning to play on guitar, and knowing that's probably not likely to change. I love to play old Anthrax, for instance...but have absolutely no interest in learning any of their newer stuff I've heard (though I haven't heard all the new album yet). I've got about 30-40 songs I cycle through...most of them for the past decade...and that list is not likely to change much. I'm just lucky that I love playing those songs...it just would be nice to have new music I liked that sounded interesting to play every so often, yaknow?

Take care,

Stu

[markb]

Re: New Anthrax Album

There must be something out there for ya. What about Iced Earth, Nevermore, Hammerfall, or Shadows Fall? Some of that stuff might be fun to play. i suppose its more power metal than thrash, but theres definitely thrash influences and maiden influences as well. P.s. thanks for the replies, thats what the forum is for to me: good exchanges of different points of view. Keep on pickin' (palm-mutin'?) [img]graemlins/toast.gif[/img]

[StuTDavis]

Re: New Anthrax Album

markpb,

Hehehe...yep...was just playing my Spreading & Among Anthrax "set" last night here...what a huge frickin palm-mute-fest! Hmm...palm-mute-fest...something about that sounds kinda dirty now that I think about it. DOH!

I agree...I love threads like this, where people actually CALMLY discuss what they like and dislike, without anyone going ballistic hehehe.

Till later,

Stu