I Am Hated!!! Part 1
No, not me…but I’m sure there are people out there that do hate me and/or the things I say when I get a bit cynical. But this is not about me in general. As metal fans we are often one minded when it comes to our favorite artist and sometimes find ourselves turning on the artists we once loved. If a band suddenly changes their style the slightest bit we tend to either like the new direction or totally hate it and start hating that band for changing the music we onced loved and turning it into something that we find is in the direction that we just can’t stand. It happens all the time. Here are a few examples.
Prime example number 1. Metallica. Metallica was once known as the greatest metal band in America and just when it seemed they were at their peek they changed styles slightly with the release of The Black Album, losing a lot of die hard fans and gaining new ones in the form of a more pop culture oriented base. The fans that were disappointed with the black album still own it and occasionally listen to it but not as often as the older stuff. If you walked up to most anyone on the street these days and did a word type association test with them and said “Metallica” they would either respond with “Enter Sandman” or “Sell-outs“. You can’t blame them for wanting to sell more albums but the direction they took was so far out in left field that it just didn’t seem like the Metallica we once knew that was out to make a name for themselves as opposed to be the same as everyone else. Personally I think it was a bad producer choice that started it all and a lot of people share that view as well. Will the new Metallica CD be different from everything else from 1990 on or will it go in another strange direction as St Anger did? Only time will tell.
Example 2: Danzig. Another producer change that changed the face of a great band. After Danzig 4, Glenn Danzig decided it was time for a change and enlisted the best person he knew for producing future records instead of past producer Rick Ruben. Who did he recruit to take on the task? Himself. This is where it all took a rather strange turn. The bluesy/metal Danzig that we once knew, turned into a rough, industrial sounding band with a new line up and a vocally weak sounding Glenn. After Blackacidevil every album seemed to improve slightly but still couldn’t drift back to the sound that the older Danzig fans liked so much. The lyrical content was the same as before, singing of evil, Satan, devils, angels and sometimes sex.To me it just didn’t have that same sound that I grew to love when my best friend got me listening to Danzig. He still likes some of the newer albums but I just can’t bring myself to listen to them like I used to Listen to Danzig 1, 2, or 3. That flame has burnt out.
Trivium have been hated by the metal community for awhile now, not just because of the release of The Crusade but because they are a young band and people just seem to hate young bands and while the music on the Ascendancy CD was amazing, there was just a lot of people that didn’t like Matt Heafy’s style of screaming. When The Crusade was released people immediately started labeling them “Metallica Clones”. While The Crusade had a lot of Metallica sounding songs and Matt changed his singing to a style, sounding more like a young James Hetfield, I still don’t still don’t see them as Metallica Clones but a more developed band that is trying to find more of a style they are comfortable with and when one of your biggest influences is Metallica then chances are you may find yourself sounding closely to them. Before when you heard a band you would be like: “Wow. I can tell that (so and so band) was a big influence on them and they got a lot of their style from (so and so band).” These days if your sound is even a little tiny bit like another band then your labeled as a clone or a copycat, tribute band.
Slipknot has been dubbed Nu-metal since they stormed the scene with their self titled debut. Additional percussion, turntables and samples were not something that the metal community was ready for and was immediately shunned by many, but loved by many others because it was something different from the same old day to day metal that bands of that time were putting out. With every record, and I’ve said this before, they drift a little away from the sound of the first mainstream record and sound heavier and more traditionally metal…but with down tuned guitars. Fortunately down tuned guitars are becoming more accepted these days. So many people still don’t accept Slipknot and do so without hearing any of their newer CDs. Instead they continue to hate with a closed mind and a deaf ear. They even go so far as to dislike Stone Sour because of any association with Slipknot.
A young band on the rise is Black Tide. With their first album released almost two weeks ago, forums and message boards are littered with trash talkers and haters from all around…but mainly from Miami Florida. A band who’s members are between the ages of 15 and 19, Black Tide got picked up by Interscope records, a rather large label for a band this young. In an effort to capitalize on the bands talent, Interscope launched a publicity campaign that most bands can only dream of. From an Ozfest seat for their first major tour and then various tours throughout the states to promote and support Light From Above, Black Tide have worked hard on their tours trying to juggle school work (Both Highschool and College) and touring in hopes to keep the tide rolling (No pun intended). However, people don’t see things that way. They see them as young punks that were manufactured by the record industry in hopes to get a chunk of the popularity that metal has been snowballing in the last few years. Stop looking at them as The Backstreet Boys of metal and give them a chance.
Part 2 coming soon…
Tags: Black Tide, Blackacidevil, Danzig, Metallica, numetal, Rick-Ruben, slipknot, the backstreet boys, The-Black-Album, triviuRelated Stories
POSTED IN: My General Articles
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