MODERATOR EDIT: Vote here: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=89994

Figured it's about time to at least start discussing this. What does everyone want to do for this next challenge?

Actually when would be a good time to do it up, I figured May would be good but I guess there are a lot of people still in school with tests or whatever.


Okay the main challenges discussed are:

power/trad/speed grouped as one. you can do whatever style out of those three however you feel.


writting a song based on a painting that is randomly assigned to you.


Pick one to do first.

Yeah, if it's May, I'll be too busy writing papers for school and so on. If it's June, I'm probably in, depending on the style restrictions.

Well I'm open to June. it's well off. Style restrictions haven't been discussed as of yet. throw some out!

It would be cool if it was something related either to Doom or Power Metal. The potential results would be either incredibly awesome or hilarious.

Traditional doom and/or heavy/power/speed metal would be cool. The challenges so far have had very few clean vocals, and while most of us probably don't normally sing, I think that would be a great thing to add to make it a challenge.

I'm down to host that, I won't be participating cause it isn't a genere that I'm very interested in doing. Esp not fond of clean vocals and def do not want to ever do them again.

Would be down as fuck for a power metal/traditional doom/heavy metal challenge.

Haha, when I was first getting into metal, I loved power metal, so it would be a nostalgic challenge I'd be happy to participate in. My submission would no doubt be simplistic and hilarious, with bad singing, but I guess that could make it fun -- and challenging. But I'll be open to other things as well, less keen on speed/heavy though.

Some sort of variations on a theme with one of the former would be cool. I'll take part if I can figure out a makeshift setup

So down to do heavy/power/speed metal. Also, may is a horrible time b/c of finals, and I'm sure some people would agree.

I think the best time for everyone would be June. that way as always it'll get extended over into July.

I'd love some power metal related thingie, though I'd still have to see if I can come up with the time to do something.

power metal. I would probably crack up, trying to sing that way. it would be nice for us all to have a good laugh

If it's something Traditional Metal / Speed Metal... I might give it a go... maybe.

I might do speed metal cause i can still do vocals close enough to that. more shouted.

Anyone who wants vocals for their song entry please send me a PM! I would love to do doom, power, thrash, etc vocals. I can write the lyrics or do yours. Let me know. Thanks!

yea, I don't know how I'll do the power metal, or something like that... I'll have to get help to get into that one... I know a lot of people like the idea for power/speed/trad, but I was hopeing for some folk metal, but I'll be in regardless of what it is

Alright this is what I'm talking about! If it's a power metal challenge I'll definitely give it a go, plus I've been singing a lot lately so I think I could handle that too. But I'm not gonna say for sure because band stuff might be happening too much around that time or something.

I was toying with the idea of a theme-based challenge, except that the actual theme is in painting or graphic art. Basically, you get a certain artwork and you try to write music to what you see.

Not sure if I'll join the June challenge anyway.

I like nuur's idea, we could get a bunch of paintings, drawings, photos, pictures, whatever and randomize them amongst the contestants and each would have to make a musical impression of the painting given to him.
If everone's up for the idea and noone else wants to take charge of it I wouldn't mind hosting and taking care of setting the stuff up, I've studied art for some time and could make a list of varied stuff while trying not to pick pictures that's are too obvious or overdone and maybe add some background information and that.

This sounds really cool!

I agree

I'm totally down with that King, power/speed/trad based on paintings. Hell it's been the most requested. and since you are about it you can host it. No problem with me.

on a side note I'll never participate in a folk challenge. ugh on that shit.

Composing music inspired by paintings sounds awesome.

I'm not so sure about the power metal idea. It could be potentially great fun but I imagine a lot of users would have technical problems with replicating the vocal style. Traditional/speed would probably be a better bet. I like the idea of composing something related to some kind of graphic as well.

Alright, I'll see what I can do. Does mid May sound good to everyone?

Also, I will need to consult an art student or connoisseur to get a sizable population of artwork that is potentially relevant to metal. I have a few in mind, but I think we're going to need at least 20 files. How about this: everyone send me your suggestions via PM and I'll see that I can arrange a proper list.

Honestly, I think that adds to the fun. Few people can really sing (myself included), so attempting singing vocals would be a nice experiment, if a horrible thing to listen to. It would definitely involve working around your weaknesses that would make this a fun endeavor.

To be honest I am pretty ignorant as to the lines between power/speed/trad metal. I guess it is like anything else in that there is always overlaps, but I never really figured out where speed metal fit in to everything. It always seemed like thrashier traditional or power metal to me.

Anyone got another suggestion? If not we could make a poll to see if we go for power or impressions on pictures.

That's the "challenge" part of it



Speed metal is a bit ambiguous and it's often paired with another genre on the archives. It's a bit of a bridge term for the style of faster heavy metal that came before thrash and was less aggressive. It isn't reliant on the band purely playing at blistering tempos. Judas Priest's "Exciter" is a great example. "Kill The King" was originally a heavy metal song performed by Rainbow, and the Liege Lord cover was speed metal/US power metal.

I like the idea of heavy/power/speed and more traditional heavy metal because it seems to be a style we don't see too often within the musicians forum. We all know some of it, nearly all of our favorite bands were influenced by this stuff, but it seems that few of us have attempted it. If you haven't heard Liege Lord, listen to "Master Control" and you'll want to make this type of music.

I agree with the idea of heavy/power/speed as long as I'm allowed to inject a little death and black into it. The vocals... It will be interesting.

I don't see why not.. I'm probably going to be going for speed as it bridges into thrash cause shouted vocals I can do, like I've said before... Not going to sing. I didn't like singing in one of my bands... .I don't like clean singing is most of my music nowadays either.

Do you want some specific art samples or perhaps just some artists you can pick something you like from their gallery of work. I'd be pretty neat if it was more than just a bunch of classical artists... like have a range... like some from impressionism, some from abstract, some from surrealism. basically like 2-3 from each represented artform. Nothing too crazy, and sticking more in paintings not having to worry about sculpture or video and all that shit.

Thanks for the clarification Zodijackyl!

I like the idea of applying the painting concept to the heavy/power/speed genre, does anyone think these should remain separate? I also want to second SLK's suggestion that we have a bunch of different art styles rather than everyone doing Jackson Pollocks or Cézanne because it would be a lot more exciting that way.

I think it might be tough to write for a certain genre, especially if it's not your primary style, if you're trying to draw influence from a painting. A lot of paintings might not necessarily remind us of H/P/S.

That's indeed the idea SLK, getting paintings from different styles and handling them randomly to avoid having everyone picking a Giger or a Friedrich to do grim stuff.

I do think however, like Apteronotus, that these should be two separate challenges, restricting the interpretations of the paintings to solely one genre would be pretty shitty.

Well i can see the points on that. I'm open to either one. If anything I lean more towards the painting than the P/S/T one for obvious reasons.

and I think most people won't be able to do anything in may cause of schooling for most people here. I think June was a better month. Me... i'm open to it for whenever.

I'm down to try this out. Problem is I suck at guitar so I'm going to have to play a really dumbed down basic song. It might not even be power metal after I'm done with it >_<

As for timing, my last Winter final is on the 27th. The entire month of May for me is the start of the spring/summer term. I may have a midterm or two but that's it.

There's an abundance of guitarists, if you're a drummer/vocalist you should look to collaborate with someone.

I will probably take part of this if it's power metal.
However, I will probably record something that I DONT like.
I fucking love speed/power metal like Running Wild, Grave Digger etc etc but I'm not too fond of flowerish stuff like Freedom Call and stuff like that... So I will do the later. I will keep to the old school way with Rocka Rollas.

So are we to take a vote or what?