Saturday, May 21, 2011

Q & A IV: The True Rapture


Is it really that time again? No? Well I don't give a shit. The concept of time-keeping; days, nights, hours or weeks is all but lost on me. It was the biggest issue everyone had with me in my last job. Four hours late they said? Blow me on your knees. Brenocide is always on time for Brenocide. I don't care what time it is in your pathetic queef of a time zone you're reading this blog in, you're running on That's Not Metal time now. If it takes longer than your lunch break to finish this article, boohoo. If your boss even breathes a word of defiance against your true metal education, it is your civic duty as a true-blooded metal head to stomp his ass into mush and break that clipboard against his squirrely little face. The human body can survive days to weeks without food or water. Your kids can wait at school until tomorrow for you to go pick them up. This is your time. This is my time. This is our time. It's time for Q&A, and since the time I started writing this was 7:27 on May 21st, 2011, that means I single-handedly fended off that pussy Christian rapture everyone was puckering their little buttholes about for the last week. Suck it Lord. You can't stop the metal.  

What are your views on the Fender guitar company?
- Røbert Sjöström

You mean the corporation that bought and turned a legendary metal axe company like Jackson into a sniveling Chinese-made dicksnot of its former self? Oh we're just peachy. Fenders are kind of a mixed bag. I mean, if I look at Iron Maiden playing live, I have to check twice to see and make sure if I'm actually watching Iron Maiden performing live, or if it's just the annual get-together of the Fender Guitar Fan Club on stage.

Iron Maiden: Brought to you in part by Fender and Bengay.
Then we have everything else against Fender, like how its instruments kind of suck. When you have all these prominent big names playing Fender guitars like Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Geddy Lee, Ynwie Malmsteen, and... John Mayer... you can get away with making an inferior product based off its guaranteed commercial success. Millions of weird necked middle-aged guys with dirty finger nails that smell like cheese and tobacco buy guitars like Fender and Gibson because they're the only names they know, and they were the only guitars that got played back in their heyday. Everybody is under the delusion that the American Les Paul or Stratocaster is the pinnacle of guitar sound perfection, and I fully realize this, because whenever I see some kid writing his half-assed review on his $200 Dean, the first thing he points out is how it sounds better than his dad's/uncle's/brother's Strat or Les Paul. Maybe your piece of shit cheapy guitar doesn't sound beautiful after all? Maybe all Gibsons and Fenders just sound like garbage, and get sold based on name recognition rather than sound or quality. I'll finish up this point by saying that due to the fact that Green Day and John Mayer play Fenders, it's not a guitar known for its metal anyway, so just steer clear and go for something less hip and better equipped for metal playing. Then again, Alexi Laiho plays an ESP, so I guess we just can't win. 

What's your opinion on the whole 'djent' thing?
- Jonathan Webster

How to palm-mute. Happy djent playing.
For those of you who don't know, the word "djent" is an onomatopoeia for a heavily palm-muted distorted guitar chord, and a name for this fangled new musical genre that someone came up with on their own. I guess this was considered a fitting label for "bands that sound like Meshuggah sounds." Because heavily palm-muted distorted guitar chords don't happen anywhere in heavy metal music except in djent, right? Toss my salad with bacon bits. 

The djent riff is low tuned, super muted and super chunky. It's also easier to play than my dick, repetitive as shit and used to the point of exhaustion in long, drawn out boring music. I don't consider 'djent' really a fitting onomatopoeia for the genre. A sound more fitting to describe it would be to put my cheeks in my palms and blow fart noises in short, quick bursts. To get myself a bit more familiar with the 'genre' I set out to listen to a couple of bands considered djent to provide a more well rounded opinion. I listened to Periphery and subsequently gave up. Here's a sample of flagship djent band Meshuggah with their thought provoking, progressive, mind-bending, non-repetitive musical mastery: 


I especially like the part where the guitar goes: JUNDALAJUNDALAJUNDALAJUNDALAJUNDALAJUNDALAJUNDALAJUNDALA... 

Yes, I think Meshuggah really sucks. Yes, you can blow me doing a handstand. 

What's your opinion of "metal" A Capella groups like Van Canto?
- Jane French 


You know, when I started watching this video, I thought this could be pretty awesome. Then the guy leans forward, stares intensely into the camera, brings the microphone to his lips, and starts chanting "RIDDLY DIDDLY RIDDLY DIDDLY..." Any and all coolness factor goes right down the proverbial toilet.  After I got done laughing harder than I've had in weeks, I came to the conclusion that this kind of the thing is the silliest shit ever, and there's no place for A Capella in the world of metal. We're sort of leaning towards the realm of irony when considering such a concept, and if I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times. There's nothing metal about being ironic.

Would you rather listen to Hip-Hop/Rap or Metalcore?
- Matt Ryan

Holy shit, Matt. Thanks for the balls. Now we're getting somewhere. Everyone's got to ask me all these soft pillow talk bitch conversational questions like "what's my opinion of this" or "do I like this or that", but not Matt. Matt brings the heat. Backing me into a corner with a hardass rhetorical question: If I had a gun in my mouth, and was given the option to either listen to a hip-hop album, listen to a metalcore album, or have my face shot off, what would I choose? Well, after strongly considering the upside to eating bullets in this situation, I would definitely choose listening to hip hop. Surprised? You shouldn't be. Metalcore is the worst music ever made, even on its best day. I'm not talking quality hip-hop either. I would rather jam with Kanye West albums all day, rather than put up with a single It Dies Today track. As close to metal as metalcore may be at times, it's not metal. It's the worst possible music anyone could listen to. Ever.

When did you first get into metal?
- Devin Udall 

I was always into metal, I just didn't know it yet. Since my very conception I have been on the neverending quest to listen to badder, bolder, more awesome, more epic music. First starting out, there was no high-speed internet. If you wanted to check your e-mail, you didn't get phone calls, and it took half an hour to download a picture. The only real outlets I had for hard rock were MTV and The Radio. Both extremely unmetal pieces of media, and as such, so was the music I thought was enjoyable. Like most little kids, I was big into pro-wrestling (WWF, WCW), but in my lust for all things more brutal and badder, I wanted a wrestling program that was as well. I got into ECW, a pay-per-view wrestling show that featured more blood, broken glass and barbed wire than the other guys. A lot of the prominent ECW wrestlers came out to heavy metal entrance music, (Rob Van Dam came out to Pantera's "Walk", Sandman came out to Metallica's "Enter Sandman".) I thought their entrance music was the baddest thing I ever heard and I needed more in anyway I could get it. So with what little strength my 28k modem could muster, I spent my adolescent years surfing the slowest web ever to look into what sort of music I was hearing on ECW, and the rest as you know, is history.

 Sort of odd looking back on it and realizing that ECW is what first introduced me to heavy metal music... 

On second thought, maybe not.

Have a question for me? Like the TNM Facebook Page and ask in the appropriate thread! \,,/

13 comments:

  1. Robert Sjostrom5/22/2011 1:02 AM

    AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA I'm on here :3

    ReplyDelete
  2. riddly diddly diddly diddly diddly diddly BUM BUM BUM

    you sir, have just made my day

    ReplyDelete
  3. And Fender are the ugliest fucking guitars in mass production, they look like toys made in China, ffs, and their sound is mediocre at best. And I fucking hate it when I bring that up and everyone goes ''herp derp, they are classic, Jimmy Hendrix played them''. Seriously, how retarded do you have to be?

    Also this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBxCl2TJNnQ&feature=related

    ReplyDelete
  4. Fenders sound like tinny shit. I hate the thin, reedy sound of them.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I use to feel the same way about Fender guitars for a long time...until I bought one. In defense of Fender and having owned various guitars of various brands over the years, Fender are great guitars despite what anyone of you say.

    If you want a good metal sound out of a fender, you need to opt for one with a humbucker and not a single coil. The thing about a Fender is that not only can you get a metal sound out of it, but you can use it for other genres and clean playing.

    Sure, it's not the most metal looking guitar, but the quality of them are much better than guitars made over seas. The sniveling kid that says his $200 Dean sounds better than his Uncle's Gibson doesn't know anything other than playing through distortion and probably never even heard his uncle's Gibson played through the same amp or with distortion. Oh, and I guarantee that he has to re-tune that piece of shit every time he picks it up. I know this because I still have a $200 Dean. I also have a Fender that I absolutely love the sound and feel of and I rarely ever have tune it.

    Oh, and did you know that a lot of metal musicians actually use Fender's and Gibson in the studio, but their endorsed guitars on stage?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Fender schmender. There is no guitar aside from the B.C. Rich Warlock. I have it on good authority that a lot of metal musicians take Fenders and Gibsons into the studio, beat them into splinters using a Warlock and then, appropriately warmed up, settle down with said Warlock to record the parts of the music that make the "riddly riddly riddly" sound.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I nearly fell of my chair with that a cappela shit.
    'What do you do for a living?' 'Ow I sing the lead guitar in a band. Yeah really.'
    I'm going to laugh for a little while longer and then wash down the failure with some real music.

    ReplyDelete
  8. @ Gogmagog

    Well played, sir. Well played.

    ReplyDelete
  9. This. Ibanez are better guitars than Fender.

    Axelfox98

    ReplyDelete
  10. I didn't know Dwayne Johnson sang guitar!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I have a new favorite website, fantastic *applauds*

    ReplyDelete
  12. I would like to say first that Djent is bad, and Mesuggah is not a very good band as a whole. (Mostly because their compositions don't go anywhere)

    But the thing is Mesuggah is that it is a bitch to play. (another story with all of the other bands that ripped them off)
    Take the main riff from the song "Bleed" you posted, they play the rhythm while bending the low B string which from a guitar players perspective is just nuts! No one plays bass and treble lines on the same instrument (unless your taking classical guitar).
    Mesuggah is a dumb experiment that is a bitch to play basically because their riffs are advanced rhythm exercises, One would simply have trouble picking in the right pattern.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlMMMvywR50&feature=related

    ReplyDelete

All readers that post under the name "Anonymous" and are too frail and weak to represent themselves properly with a title, shall be deemed false metal poseurs for the remainder of their pitiful existence.