Listen to Witcher, because you have no idea what the hell you are talking about...do you even listen to metal?

Reports for In Flames


March 26th, 2008
Posted at 10:46

Well, it's true that In Flames have put up a few releases that shook the foundations of them being a Melodic Death Metal band, but placing them in the Modern Rock category is literally mocking... In Flames are one of the pioneers of Melodeath, and I'd appreciate (along with other fans) if this "Modern Rock" categorisation would be changed. I'd understand if you put something like "Melodic Death Metal/Gothenburg (old), Alternative/Melodic Death Metal (new)", and I think it should really be put that way. In Flames has put a lot of people down with some releases, but this is really over-reacting as it's is putting them side-to-side with Nickelback or something (not that I dislike them, it's just that they're extremely distant from each other when it comes to genre)... In Flames is a much heavier band than the "Modern Rock" genre defines them to be, so please - change it to "Alternative/Melodic Death Metal" or something... I believe you will take this matter at hand and change this as soon as possible. Thank you!

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The fanboys are getting restless ... fascinating.
Also the proposed solution - alternative death metal.
The modern rock category is maybe too vague, but a fictive genre as alternative death metal?

Pretty cool. He stays polite though, which is quite appreciable.

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Cataract (Che) is listed as "Hardcore (past) Thrash/Death/Metalcore (current)"
I think what they play currently is basically metalcore.

Quick listen

Thoughts?

I'd have to agree with him the Modern Rock tag is rather misleading, but the proposed genre isn't much of an improvement.

I agree with you.

...he also said "or something" in case you missed that part. He did make a good point however, as the "Modern Rock" genre tag is completely out to lunch - and he was very polite in his argument, which is a definite bonus.

New In Flames sounds like Modern Rock to me.

Soundtrack to Your Escape was basically Electonica/Melodeath, which is far from "Modern Rock" (just as one example).

Death/Black Metal (early), Ceremonial Psycho Black/Drone Noise (now)
o'rly?
http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=58613

Especially amusing is the fact of early and now as there is only one release so far.

I am ripping the demo right now and the music is a weird arrangement of elements in vein of Abruptum.

edit: I have added some information to the additional notes.
êdit 2: fixed by molk15. Thanks!

I don't, their music could have perfectly been made in 1995 or something.

Honestly, I don't trust you to label any band's genre.

And?
Metalcore already existed in the 1990's. The fact that the music sounds like recorded in 1995 doesn't make it less metalcore. Just my opinion though.

Metalcore as in its current definition didn't exist as a scene/trend in the 90's, but that's not quite the point. Said band's music is standard groove metal with thrash/death leanings.

Lord Blasphemate
http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=12653

I have their second demo and it can be described as Black Metal; Venom, very early second wave of symphonic Norway-Black Metal, Beherit.

But listen to the two tracks at their MySpace... I would describe them as Power Metal. Opinions?
http://www.myspace.com/lordblasphemate

Isn't Black Sabbath Grindcore?

Seems like you're about to finally earn his trust.

I've changed the Lucifer's Friend genre. Only "Asterix", "Lucifer's Friend" and "Where Groupies killed the Blues" albums are actually metallic enough to be labelled as heavy metal, the last one with notable jazz influences (listening to it at the moment).

From 1973 onwards their sound became more and more jazzy, even popish at times, with little to no metal sound.
Their last album before the split, "Mean Machine", is a heavier effort, AOR/Hard Rock in the vein of Bad Company and Foreigner.

Sorry guys, but shouldn't the M-A avoid the term "nu-metal"? Because all of we know that this genre is not metal, I think it would be better if its substituted by "mallcore".

Cheers to everyone.

Nu-metal is an appropriate genre tag in certain circumstances, and it's more accurate than 'mallcore'.

As to In Flames, I'd agree that Modern Rock is not an appropriate tag. Perhaps Alt. Metal or metalcore (given how core Come Clarity was) might be more appropriate.

How about "altcore"? I believe that ridiculous genre name succinctly conveys just how bad In Flames really is.

I'll have to find a link of that album. Parts of those songs hardly sound metal. For now at least it makes sense to list it as you say.

I wouldn't object to that term, though the presence of solos and overtly 'metal' characteristics bobbles that description a bit. Alt. Metalcore?

I mean the tag "Metal" doesn't fit with this genre at all.
The Nu-rock/core or whatever, doesn't deserve to be called Metal, I'll never find appropiate to call it that way; and I think is not worth to search for an "appropiate" subgenre to these bands; anyways there is just 6 bands tagged as Nu in the MA.

There is not much hardcore in their music, besides the new vocals style. It shpuld be perhaps alternative rock/nelodic death metal, since they combine it with their old Gothenburg style.

I think that would be a fair alternative.

Believe me, also the demo I have is rather borderline BM; the music has some Gothic, Darkwave or something like that in it... I will upload it on sunday or monday.

Probably the best option.

Ah well, everyone's a critique, eh?

Alt Rock/Melodeath is fine though as a descriptor for their newer sound - though there definitely was heavy experimentation in Electronica for STtYE

cheers,
--N

Hello, I think the gothic metal tag associated to My Dying Bride's music genre is useless. Doom/Death is fair enough to describe the band's sound.

Their latest album abandoned the death aspect of their sound and added a more gothic element in place of it. It fits well enough.

Then what about 34.788%... Complete? And adding some gothic elements does not change the band's genre to gothic metal still the band is clearly doom

This is getting beyond ridiculous.

MDB has been predominantly gothic since at least The Angel and the Dark River.

Black Widows - "Melancholic Heavy Metal"
http://metal-archives.com/band.php?id=5290
Should probably be changed to Gothic/Heavy metal

Also, I think somebody should look at this:
http://metal-archives.com/search.php?st ... type=genre

I would agree that Melancholic is a unnecessary descriptor.

Is there any way to deny certain search results so that only bands without input genre descriptors such as "black", "death", "power", "thrash etc show up? You could just throw in all of the major genres and see what's left in the dregs.

Doing some random genre searches here to find fucked-up ones...

Searched for "dy"

1. Bad News Heavy metal parody, comedy
2. Crotchduster Avant-garde/Death/Power Metal, Parody
3. Divine Eve Grindy Doom/Death
4. Evig Kveld Electronic Black Metal, Parody
5. Immortal Choir Power / Speedy Metal
6. Masokist Grind Core, Comedy (early) Brutal Death Metal (now)
7. Profecia (Ecu) Speedy death/thrash
8. Spazztic Blurr Crossover/Grindcore Parody
9. Total Terror Grindy/Crusty Death Metal
10. Virulence (US) Grindy Death with Jazz-parts
11. Zimmer's Hole Speed/Thrash/Death Parody Metal

Does "parody" or "comedy" really deserve places as genres? Some of these other bands are listed as "Speedy" or "Grindy" - could they not have a better name?

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How about "orch" (for orchestral)? 28 results. Could most, if not all of these bands simply be switched to "symphonic" and we could be done with a rather redundant term? Or do any of these bands actually deserve the term?

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for the term "shred" I get 167 listings. Now, I don't know exactly how shred fits in the whole metal family tree, but it seems a bit redundant, no? Thoughts on this? This particular sub-genre is out of my experience.

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"Bleeding Thorn" is listed as "cold black metal". I'm fairly certain "black metal" would do equally fine.

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There are also 141 results for "school". I realise this has more bearing than other pseudo-genre styles, but perhaps giving a more general "death metal" rather than "old school death metal" would be more appropriate. Thoughts?

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"harsh" came up with some odd results. Now, without getting too much into the whole "harsh vocals" debate (ugh....) here are some winners:

11. Chalice of Oblivion Symphonic Metal with harsh and melodic vocals (does this need to be stated?)

18. Decreto K Black Metal/Harsh Noise

20. Deva Yena Melodic power metal with occasional harsh vocals (occasional? Hmmm??)

22. Enbilulugugal Black Metal/Harsh Noise

25. Faerghail Melodic 'Death'/Heavy Metal with Harsh Vocals (is this band is " 'Death' " metal, is saying they have harsh vocals a double-redundancy?)

31. Nicta Melodic Power Metal, occasional harsh vocals (again, occasional?)

32. Nox Aeterna Symphonic Metal with harsh and melodic vocals (again, do we need both listings?)

33. Nuclear Crucifixion (Aus) Harsh Black Metal

35. Origin of Silence Progressive metal with harsh and clean vocals (again?)

42. Synestesia Melodic Metal with harsh vocals (early) - Melodic Death Metal (now) (thoughts on the genre "Melodic Metal"?)

48. Widow (US) Power metal with some harsh vocals ("with some" is kinda pointless...)

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I'll work on this more later

cheers,
--N

Some more gems:

Agony Column 'Hillbilly' Heavy Metal
Chrome Division Heavy Metal, Dirty Rock'n'Roll
Cult of the Lizard God Obscure Black Metal

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Searched for the term " ' " and got a lot of interesting genre names...

I can sum it up thusly:

Genres are either:
'Black' Metal (which shouldn't have the " ' "s around it) or
80's Metal (which adds nothing - should be re-named simply "Heavy Metal")

Some "unique" band genres of interest:

2. Aamonhammer 80's doom/black/thrash (not sure what 80's adds to this descriptor)
6. Acid Universe Extreme Rock 'n Metal (not a real genre. Heavy metal/Hard Rock?)
10. Agony Column 'Hillbilly' Heavy Metal (really now... Hillbilly?)
55. Cryosphere Symphonic 'Black-ish' Metal (Black... ish?)
126. Korog Speed Metal (old) Black metal/Rock'n roll hybrid (new) (could simply be re-named to "Black'n'roll (now)")
127. Kurazh Progressive Heavy/Power Metal (now), Hard'n'Heavy (early) (Hard and Heavy?)
129. Livesay Classic '80s-influenced heavy metal (not sure of this one at all)
135. Messe Noir 'War' metal, black/death metal ("'war'" metal?)
143. Necrosis (Arg) 90's thrash (Post thrash?)
162. Replica (Esp) 90's Thrash Metal (Post-thrash?)
201. Tribes of Neurot Dark ambient experimental 'tribal' noise "'tribal'"?)
217. Zotz 90's Aggressive Heavy/Power Metal (90's Aggressive Metal? No shit?!)

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Aggressive Metal? Yeah, we got some, I guess. Here we go:

1. Bodies Aggressive melodic metal
2. Croam Aggressive Heavy Metal/Thrash
3. Dark Faith (Esp) Aggressive Black Metal
4. Davidian (Ger) Aggresive Thrash Metal
5. Dreadful (Nor) Melodic/Aggressive Metal with Black/Thrash Elements
6. Fear Absolute Aggressive Heavy Metal
7. Hellgenom Aggressive Power metal
8. Neverend Aggressive Groove/Industrial Metal
9. Oblivion (Swe) Aggressive Thrash Metal
10. Reckon With One Aggressive Heavy Metal
11. Rigor Mortis (Jpn) Raw Aggressive Thrash Metal
12. Zotz 90's Aggressive Heavy/Power Metal

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Oriented got me 3 results:

1. Funeral (Fra) NS oriented Black Metal (rename to NSBM, Black Metal)
2. Lord Vepar Black Metal (early) - Drone/Doom-oriented Black Metal (now) (Or, Drone/Doom/Black Metal)
3. The God Machine Groove oriented Stoner/Doom Metal (Groove/Stoner/Doom Metal?)

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War brought on some... interesting results as well - 51 of them. As far as I know, War metal is another certain type of name for Black metal, right? Anyways, some of the more unique genre-name choices:

6. Belinus Celtic War Metal
13. Demontuary Blackened Epic War Metal
21. Kraina Bez Wiatru Neo-Folk, Pagan War-folk
45. Visitant Epic War Metal
50. Wolfkhan Pagan Black Metal with War Ambient Folk influences

I'm certain these could use some clearing-up, although the use of 'war' as a genre descriptor doesn't really fly with me anyways, but I digress...

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The term various came up 14 times. I think that for certain bands, you might very well have to use the term (Rampage seems to fit the bill, to be sure, since they go all over the place in metaldom) however, most of these bands could likely be called experimental or some sort or another.

1. Amazigh Gothic Metal with various influences
2. Audioblack Darkened Progressive/Power Metal with Various Influences
3. Blackwolf Folk Metal (now) - Various (early)
4. Centurions Ghost Doom Metal w/ various other influences
5. Disembowelment Doom metal with various influences
6. Gwar Various
7. Isten Háta Mögött Doom Metal / Stoner with various influences
8. Machinae Supremacy Power Metal with various influences
9. Masquerade of Silence Death Metal with various influences
10. Rampage (US) various
11. Tunes of Dawn Gothic Metal with various influences
12. Ultra Vomit Death/Grind (early), various (later)
13. Under Moonlight Sadness Death Metal with Various influences
14. Waltari Progressive Metal with various influences

Thoughts?

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EDIT: Finally: ish. Another term that can be used appropriately but likely isn't. List:

1. Agonizer (Chl) Blackish Doom Metal
2. Arizen Black/Speed/Thrashy punkish metal
3. Asterius gothic/symphonic black-ish metal
4. Azarok Folkish Black Metal
5. Banished (Swe) Blackish Heavy Metal
6. Cryosphere Symphonic 'Black-ish' Metal
7. DeadByDay Blackish Gothic Metal
8. Draugnim Pagan Blackish Metal
9. Elsinor Folkish Heavy Metal
10. Entorturement Brutish Groovy Death Metal
11. Glemte Hage Doomish metal
12. Golfaron Folkish NS Black Metal
13. Ice Desert Folkish Pagan Metal/Dark Ambient
14. Nocturnal Earth Progressive Black-ish Metal
15. Nornir Blackish Folk/Pagan Metal
16. Pagan Rites Doomish Pagan Metal
17. Raza de Odio Thrash/death metal with flamenco spanish influences
18. Rhymes of Destruction Symphonic pagan blackish Metal
19. Rivendell Folkish epic black metal
20. Scum (Nor) Punkish Black Metal
21. Shamash atmospheric blackish metal
22. Sigrblot Black Metal/Dark Folkish Metal
23. Skidbladnir Viking Metal with some folkish elements
24. Solgrav Blackish Folk/Pagan Metal
25. Taedeat Death/Blackish Metal
26. Terrorwheel Punkish Speed Metal
27. The Fools of Christ Blackish Metal
28. Windwalker Epic Blackish Heavy Metal
29. X-Creta Raw Punkish Speed Metal
30. Your Anguish Thrash/Death Metal (first), Swedish Death Metal (now)
31. Zirze Folkish Power Metal

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Anyways, I'm off to bed for now. I'm sure I've given the mods enough to deal with for now, haha.

cheers,
--N

Neolithium

"Death metal with doom influences"

Actually morelike "Doom Metal / Crust" (Blend of doomy parts with "metalcrust")
Quick listen

If you get my meaning.

Did a search for "ing". It seems that it falls into one of a few camps:

Viking Metal (legit)

OR

Grinding, Thrashing, Droning, Shredding metal of one sort or another. Most of these genres could have a better term used.

OR

X-tinged metal, which is a much lesser0used term when mainly the terminology uysed here is "X-influenced" metal. A small point, but only 3 bands use this style.

SOME "UNIQUE" FINDS:

Last Day to Fall death metal with metalcore leanings (Sounds like Deathcore)

Runaway Totem Haunting Ambient Doom/Progressive Rock (I'm sure we can switch the term "Haunting" with "Atmospheric")

2. Sundean Traditional metal with thrash leanings (maybe, Thrashy Heavy metal, as searching for the term "Thrashy" gives 25 results?)

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Anyways, that's all for now.

cheers,
--N

Uh, those two tracks make me question my judgment a bit. I have their demo somewhere. Hopefully I can dig it up and hear the other tracks.



Now, it's not that simple. Anyway I've handled them all. Half of them were from the eighties anyway so, the tag weren't that telling really. It's a good thing I knew so many of those bands from before and that it was relatively easy to find samples or reviews for the rest of them.


Symphonic makes more sense as a music tag than orchestral does.

I'm not sure how the old-school tags should be handled.

Various influences seem like a really stupid tag and I've been able to remove it in many cases without it doing any harm. The band is already labeled as progressive, come on. I have not dared deciding on a genre for Centurion's Ghost yet though. They really are genre-transcending. While the root probably is some sort of doom metal, the music isn't without bits of neither death or black or even other things.