I watch it every now and then and I think it's neat that they attempt to interview artists to see how they are in the modern era. At times though I feel the show could expand on the bands they interview (they tend to stick to "heavy metal" bands and stand clear of extreme bands like DRI, Triptykon, and Exhorder- and yeah I get the idea that they stick to mainstream stuff for commercial purposes, but come on). All these bands are still active and it would be interesting to see a TV show embrace all the subgenres in metal and not play this pioneer and icon worship thing they have going on. Any thoughts on it?

I think they focus on hard rock far too much. Again, they probably have to, because it's VH-1, but it makes them look like posers.

I think its the structure of the show that makes it not be as good as it could be. Eddie Trunk is a talented interviewer when he gets the time to actually talk to metal musicians on his radio show. Jim Florentine can be quite funny on his own and on the Howard Stern Show. The other dude is funny on the Meet The Creeps show. Basically you have 3 talented dudes that appear lame due to a severely compromised tv show structure. I've watched some episodes and i was dissapointed that so many talented ppl that are into metal could make such a boring show.

It's a nice show to see, but it sticks too much on Hard Rock/Heavy Metal bands and some bands of other genres, (Overkill for example) I enjoy to see the show, but i prefer to see something different, and they're kinda arrogant, specially Eddie Trunk.

I tend to watch it if I'm at home but as stated above, it's very hard rock orientated which is a real shame.

When you get down to it, I feel this way too. I'm growing to hate hearing the phrase "hard rock and heavy metal" in conjunction like that, as if the two are inseparable. They're different genres not that closely related to each other anymore; it's not the 70s, guys.

Watched probably 1 full episode and then a couple interviews. It's like a few man cave bros (which I hate) talking big name hard rock / heavy metal. There's more to it than that, but that's what it boils down to for me.

I like the show, but it's passable a lot of the time because of what everyone else is saying here about the types of bands that they focus on, so I usually choose to watch depending on the guest. I do agree though that because they're on VH1 they have to compromise a little and stick to bands that appeal to the widest audience just to have the longevity to stay on the air. I mean, if you had extreme metal bands showing up for interviews, you'd probably have one season's worth of shows before it got cancelled simply because you wouldn't have anywhere near the numbers of people interested in tuning-in than if they just stuck to the usuals most of the time, which is what they generally do. It wouldn't hurt to go deeper underground though, but they're just basically playing it safe. Aside from Eddie Trunk who knows basically nothing about extreme metal, I know that Don Jamieson and Jim Florentine are knowledgeable enough and like enough to talk about it and include some in the show. Ever notice Don wear that Vital Remains shirt?
I met Jim Florentine when him and Eddie Trunk were on tour with Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax and we got into talking about stuff like Venom, Kreator, Possessed, etc. and he's definitely a big Celtic Frost fan. There was someone who approached him and asked why they didn't have death metal bands and black metal "like Dimmu Borgir and Gorgoroth" on the show and Jim responded by saying that they tried having Dimmu Borgir on the show, but they either didn't return contact or just refused. Anyway, I guess they're trying but I still can't imagine, even a band with massive notoriety like Dimmu, being on That Metal Show.
It would be Eddie Trunk twiddling his thumbs while Shagrath reveals once and for all, who he feels is the better singer, Sammy Hagar or David Lee Roth (???)... with shades on.

I only saw one episode, but it was terrible. The whole "stump the trunk" segment was just painful. Eddie Trunk kept getting all the questions wrong, then kept bitching about it.

ive only seen one episode on demand...the one with alice and rob zombie. It was random but I dont think it was all that bad. I can never find it on tv and seen any other episodes though so I cant really form a good opinion on the show. what time does it usually run?

Didn't VH-1 have a show during the early-00s hosted by Sebastian Bach where he'd just play Slayer videos and talk to Rob Halford? They should bring that back.

I've seen parts of a handful of episodes. -You can't have an Top 5 Thrash Albums list without any of the German trifecta, let alone all of the underground classics that they just don't know about. They cut it down from 15 albums no less and there were all the popular american 'thrash' bands. Losers.

I was linked to the episode in which they talked about Accept when the new vocalist joined and I wasn't particularly impressed by any of these guys. At least the Eddie guy seems to have some semblance of enthusiasm for metal even if he's pretty clueless outside of the stuff that was popular when he was young. This is a 'metal' TV show meant for people whose exploration of metal will probably never go beyond the stuff shown on VH1.

I actually really like the show for what it is and I take the attitude that any kind of metal related show on tv is better than nothing. I guess it would be cooler if they focused on more extreme bands but I understand that that the channel they are on that wouldn't work and that they are trying to appeal to a large middle of the road audience.

I will say that I was starting to get bored with this last season as they are starting to have some of the same guests on twice and the "top 5 list" or whatever comes off as ridiculous at times.

I find the interviews way too superficial and a lot of the show isn't even focused on the guests. There's potential, but the way it is now it's a little bland.

Eddie Trunk is a big, fat, stupid asshole who has a better working knowledge of Whitesnake than Accept. The fame of both bands should be indicitive, as his taste clearly veers at an alarming rate towards the former, making calling it "That Metal Show," an acceptable title only to people who actively watch VH-1 (read: unics) and people who think discussing the intricacies of Rainbow's AOR albums is worthwhile television (read: those three assholes and unics).

It's stupid. VH1 is constantly turtle-heading as opposed to just shitting something out. Little peeks of little peaks, and then big stinky farts for all eternity. Commit to something fuckers, we're at war.

I've seen a few episodes and I agree with everybody else, it's more towards hard rock and popular bands. The most underground thing I've seen on their is Overkill... But judging by the band shirts they have worn they seem to know more about metal than they put on their show. If it wasn't for stupid VH1, they could probably get some better bands on there and make an actual metal show. Kiss isn't metal, sorry Eddie.

They probably aren't allowed to talk about more obscure, or extreme stuff. It's understandable, your average VH-1 viewer just doesn't have the knowledge of the genre that we do here. They probably wouldn't be able to appreciate it.

Possibly, but I kind of get the feeling that, while Eddie Trunk and the like may like some more obscure stuff, that their allegiance largely falls in with that was popular when they were growing up. "Glory days" discussions insue. That's the kind of shit that should be relegated to one of theirs' "office" which is really just their oldest kids bedroom that they stuck a desk in. "You bring the Turbo, I'll bring the brew!" type shit.

Because that's how their demographic is, hence marketing terms like "classic rock". At least we know from the above posts that the other two at least are definitely into some underground stuff.

I actually met Don with my uncle at a Slayer show when That Metal Show first came out, and he was pretty open about the fact that VH1 was keeping a tight grip on who goes on the show and what gets played, and he basically told us "not to expect anything more extreme than Slayer, maybe Kreator if we're lucky". Though he did say that they were hoping to have Richard Christy and all the old Death guys on the show and do an episode dedicated to Chuck, but I guess that never happened.

I would have never guessed that. I'm actually watching it right now. I guess they're not posers like I assumed. So I guess Eddie Trunk is the talking head? I don't know about him.

That's kind of a surprise to me too that Don isn't a complete tool, he sure fooled me. I always rag on this show when it gets brought up but maybe it is a step in the right direction for metal exposure, albeit a timid one. I just hate seeing the audience and it's a bunch of thirty-something dudes with Death Magnetic shirts and tools who ride motorcycles to work at Sprint and dress like bikers on the weekends. It's like a sample population of the airheads who only like the metal that mainstream radio feeds them.

They have said it themselves, that because it is on vh1 classic, they discuss more hard rock/heavy metal bands as opposed to newer, heavier, or more obscure bands. The show isn't fantastic, but it isn't bad either. Its a small step forward for metal in my opinion.

Yeah, they don't give any indication of being into more underground stuff. I think they might have had a good excuse to get Brocas Helm after they were suddenly discovered by people following their exposure from video games. I agree about the audience.

Thing is though, is that even on his radio show, Eddie Trunk errs on the side of hard rock and heavy metal. Don't get me wrong, you could argue that was the majority of the stuff he grew up around, and fair enough, but if you're going to be a part of the journalism aspect of the metal scene, as a TV or radio host, sticking to the familiar is no good. The majority of the public who'd be watching the show are already familiar with the old school (ie Deep Purple, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden etc.), and rehashing that over and over really limits the growth of bands that are similar but not as well known. I'm not talking super underground, I'm not that naive, but things like Fates Warning, Armored Saint, Candlemass, stuff like that. They had staple classics in the 80's, and (the former two especially) were on the MTV periphery at one point or another.

Those three guys seem like good ol' boys, frankly, and by not even bothering to express knowledge in any public way, they further the marginalization of any bands or genres that the mainstream hasn't deemed "ok," as well as the stereotype of metal fans being nothing but light-beer drinking dude-bro-man-guys in their 40's, unable to get over the fact that at one point Halford left Judas Priest. Idiots, basically. I know there must be strict limitations to what they can really get into, BUT VH1 has aired numerous documentaries that featured more obscure bands. Grow a pair or fuck off. There're enough James Hetfield guys to go around.

That's true. They aired Metal: A Headbangers Journey. You have a very good point about bands that used to be on MTV's radar.

Sucks. Hosts suck. Bands on it suck.

Rob Halford is on there fairly frequently, his music doesn't suck.

Well the first time I watched "That Metal Show", I was completely unimpressed...
I watched like 3 or 4 episodes back to back, and the highlight of all the episodes combined was the VERY short interview they did with Chuck Billy, and some of the witty banter that the guy who did one of the voices on Crank Yankers throws out every now and again...

IMHO, it should be called: "That Rock Show".

-Wes

I think most ppl agree that the metal show is just not that great. But check out 2 of the dudes last show (not metal related) its fucking hillarious:
http://www.atom.com/funny_videos/meet_creeps_job/
http://www.atom.com/funny_videos/meet_creeps_gerbil

Just trying to get their 80s audiences back, from what I've seen it's the same shit. I think the most extreme band they have and probably ever will is Overkill.

One of us should get on the show and school them during the 'Stump the Trunk' segment. I think if the show would cover all sub genres of metal (Excluding -core and nu metal, but seeing as they love that stuff, probably not a possibility.) and interviewed less absolutely commercial bands. I mean, just guests like members from Deicide, Pentagram, Eyehategod, Sodom, and other bands around that level of commercial success would be cool. I'd watch the show then.

Do you actually think you're the target audience here.

I just hate how they ask Eddie Trunk shit like "What was the 1984 pop album that Slash played guest solos on?"
And they're all like SHIT YEAH THIS DUDE SURE KNOWS HIS METAL.

Yeah, actually, I think I hate these guys.

No.

I meant to put 'should' instead of would, my bad. But it would be cool if they tried to cover more genres than just traditional and some thrash.

..Not really..at all.

The show bores me, to be honest

I like Eddie Trunk quite a bit but I dislike the direction of the show. Like you guys said, it's too focused on hard rock. But it's not like they're going to have a mainstream show about death metal and stuff like that. I get why they do it.

I watch it, can be quite fun. I really love a lot of the bands that get spoken about there, and a lot of the people interviewed, too.

I'll agree, some of the lists make me cringe, the thrash one was a bit mind boggling. There was also the album cover one with Celtic Frost, and it didn't make the "Top 5". Then Phil Anselmo came out as the first guest and yelled at them for not putting Celtic on the list. That was funny.

Sometimes when they have a chance Eddie really does ask some cool questions - I think the throwdown should be totally done away with as most of the time the question is stupid and they don't even stick to it.

Stump The Trunk is pretty hilarious, there was one episode where Eddie got almost everything wrong and was getting noticeably pissed, saying that the audience was wrong. That was awesome.

Slowly it is getting better but yeah, there is definitely a tight reign put on it by VH-1, and hey, you gotta make up the views somehow...