Hopeless 7-string addict checking in

BMU · 2009-08-14T10:03:11+00:00

Good morning. Been lurking for a while, it's probably time to jump in so here goes. I've been playing since my teens for around 20 years now. Yes, I know...

Hopeless 7-string addict checking in

deanBailey

BMU wrote: Willem186: yeah Nevermore are musically excellent, but I find the operatic vocals and melodramatic ballads irritating. Jeff Loomis' solo album is therefore just perfect!

Yeah I was the same with Nevermore, till I started to prefer singing over screaming.

Loomis' album is pretty great but the programmed drums spoiled it for me :/

andrewjbryson

Welcome man....

Awesome gear / good taste in guitars

Ibanez Prestige 4 life

BMU

andrewjbryson wrote: Welcome man....

Awesome gear / good taste in guitars

Ibanez Prestige 4 life

Thanks dude. Yep playing a Prestige is like a hot knife through butter. My UV practically plays itself. BTW, I checked out your Myspace, flippin impressive, good stuff.

@ deanBailey, re. programmed drums - ahh the bliss of ignorance. I never registered it once. Of course, now you've probably sensitized me and I WILL hear it next time, GEE THANKS ?

Singing in metal, the age old dilemma. It should be tough, but not stupid. That rules out the castrato-operatic brigade and the cookie monster hordes, both. There's a wide range of acceptable styles in the middle there, from Dickinson & Halford to the Amorphis dude to Paradise Lost's Nick Holmes, if only more bands had something like that. At least cookie monster vocals provide great comic relief, I've had many a good giggle listening to Amon Amarth et. al.

AlanRatcliffe

Singing in metal, the age old dilemma. It should be tough, but not stupid. That rules out the castrato-operatic brigade and the cookie monster hordes, both.

? Which unfortunately rules out the vast majority of metal bands right there. A good vocalist doesn't make up for bad lyrics either - listen to some of the Malmsteen stuff where he has excellent singers like Joe Lynn Turner singing about demons/vikings/demon vikings, etc..

Also, is it just me, or does the constant barrage of machine-gun double kick drum beats spoil a lot of metal? No spaces, no contrast, no dynamics. Maybe I'm just getting old... <sigh>

BMU

Luckily cookie monster vocals are usually completely unintelligible so I don't have to know about vikings/demons/autopsies/evil priests etc. To me it's all instrumental music, I've evolved a highly advanced neural ability to block out the cookie monsters over the years. ?

Re. double bass, sometimes too much yep. But you know what REALLY spoils the music: blastbeats. Can't stand 'em. Wish they were never invented.

DonovanB

Welcome BMU!

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: Also, is it just me, or does the constant barrage of machine-gun double kick drum beats spoil a lot of metal? No spaces, no contrast, no dynamics. Maybe I'm just getting old... <sigh>

Well it worked for Metallica's One, but they were trying for the machine gun sound.

AlanRatcliffe

Had to look up blastbeats - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blastbeats. I know exactly what you mean though, and it just sounds bad. Sometimes sounds more like a country 2/4 on speed.

DonovanB wrote: Well it worked for Metallica's One, but they were trying for the machine gun sound.

Problem is, most of them are taping coins or credit cards to their batter heads to try and get the "Metallica click" sound, and at those tempos they sound more like typewriters than machine guns.

shadow1

WElcome man,

7 strings looks good! i got one too, its the IBANEZ RG fixed bridge( i hate floyd rose bridges)
They sound so sweet just abit of strain on the hands for me tho (cause i jam 6 strings alot)

BMU

Country on speed LOL. Guthrie Govan has this really funny liner note, something about uptempo country songs that can be just as energetic as aggressive metal, and just as hilarious.

DonovanB, thanks for the welcome. Hehe, I think we have slightly different reference frames. I'm thinking more Morbid Angel where the 200bpm double bass almost never stops. ? (I do love MA though.)

Shadow1 - yep hate floating bridges too. That's what the LTD's purpose was, simplicity, ability to change tuning easily when needed etc. In fact on my previous UV I had the bridge fixed for years. May do that on the new one too.

Man I'm really missing that LTD, the EMG81s sounded amazing. I've been waiting for 3+ months now for a replacement from the States, and now I heard just last week that they can't bring another one in, ESP insists on only shipping out in lots of 12 or something. So I'm out guitar shopping again. Has anyone spotted a fixed bridge seven, preferably with EMG's, anywhere in SA? Yeah fat chance I know. ?

chris77

Jeeez. I really have to get of my rocking chair, go to a decent music store.... and then walk past to discount bins and classic rock section with my eyes closed. Maybe then I'll check out some of these bands. Seriously, 99% of the bands and artist mentioned I have never heard of. If I listened to their music and then didnt like it, fine. But I have honestly not heard any of these okes! Old age is a bitch I tell ya...

deanBailey

BMU wrote: But you know what REALLY spoils the music: blastbeats. Can't stand 'em. Wish they were never invented.

I was fully in the same boat till I realised that people did it anywhere and everywhere and oversampled the drums so much that it sounded like binary.
In some stuff I've been working on, I've used grind blasting into parts with clean guitars ?...yes clean guitars.

The key is to not destroy dynamics! keep the feel alive.
There's a band called Ackercocke who sorta do it in the clean bits but with less dynamics.

I guess as long as it's used tastefully.

PS. Warning to the religious. Akercocke is quite Anti-christian.