What are you listening to right now?

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Posted by Mastodon2

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Posted by Trapt1nw0nder

Canon by Funtwo,,,YouTube Video...

kickass guitar playing

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You should look up the original arrangement by Jerry C, he is much better at this. This funtwo guy gets sloppy. Really sloppy. He completely simplifies some parts because he cant play them. At 2:02 he makes a gargantuan mess of a sweep.

Furthermore, his guitar isnt even properly intonated above the 12th fret!


Now THIS is what I call playing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4RNA1LfYbg

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thats some sickass guitar playing right there,but its not a song i would like to actually listen to....

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Posted by Mastodon2

yeah I agree there are plenty of bands making "complex" songs, such as Necrophagist, but really its faux complexity. They play fast, a lot of string skipping and artificial harmonics, but at the end of the day, the phrasing is still very regimented and constrained.

I just wish sometimes these guys would stop soloing in the key of their lowest open string, and stop playing phrases of varying notes but identical duration, it gets boring, but hey, thats where Jazz came from.

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Check out some of the below, I think your opinion will change:

JAZZ DEATH METAL
Atheist
Pestilence
Cynic

PROGRESSIVE DEATH METAL
Death
Opeth
Nocturnus

And for their utter complexity in musical composition (and I am not just talking about sher speed and un-organic technicality, I am talking about eloquently enfused harmonies, off beat drumming and moments of jazz fusion), I would take a listen to Cryptopsy and really listen to how complex their songs are.

I am familiar with the mentioned bands, and I hate to break it to you, but thats not Jazz. Those bands are far to structured and composed, with almost no improvisation.

If you believe that the mentioned bands display "eloquently enfused harmonies, off beat drumming and moments of jazz fusion" you really need listen to A) Proper Jazz or some traditional African, Kawaali or Carnatic music.

Death's Crystal mountain is great though, and I do like Sean Malone's (bassit of Cynic) song "Textures" is great, very Dream Theater-esque.

I dont like Opeth, their "Morningrise" album was incredible from start to finish, but everything else they do lacks inspiration.

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Posted by Mastodon2

I am familiar with the mentioned bands, and I hate to break it to you, but thats not Jazz. Those bands are far to structured and composed, with almost no improvisation.

If you believe that the mentioned bands display "eloquently enfused harmonies, off beat drumming and moments of jazz fusion" you really need listen to A) Proper Jazz or some traditional African, Kawaali or Carnatic music.

Death's Crystal mountain is great though, and I do like Sean Malone's (bassit of Cynic) song "Textures" is great, very Dream Theater-esque.

I dont like Opeth, their "Morningrise" album was incredible from start to finish, but everything else they do lacks inspiration.

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I never said these bands were straight up jazz. They are still metal, but they do have jazz influence. No, its not improvisational, but death metal is much too technical to provide a good landscape for improv (and jazz does not have to be improvised).

For proper evidence, listen to Atheist's "Elements" album, in particular the song Air. How you can call this song completely structured is beyond me. Hell, the entire album is disjointed.

My point is that you called the genre a very bland and simplistic form of music, and what I am saying is that it can be very complex. To call Death's Individual Thought Patterns simplistic would be a sin.

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Posted by warglory

I never said these bands were straight up jazz. They are still metal, but they do have jazz influence. No, its not improvisational, but death metal is much too technical to provide a good landscape for improv (and jazz does not have to be improvised).

For proper evidence, listen to Atheist's "Elements" album, in particular the song Air. How you can call this song completely structured is beyond me. Hell, the entire album is disjointed.

My point is that you called the genre a very bland and simplistic form of music, and what I am saying is that it can be very complex. To call Death's Individual Thought Patterns simplistic would be a sin.

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You seem to be dropping the Jazz name in the way that a lot of uneducated metal journos are doing these days, the entire foundation of Jazz is inprovisation, throwing harmonies and odd meters into a song doesnt make it Jazz, but at the same time, straight up imrpov doesnt either. And you cannot say that Death Metal is too technical for improvisation, no music is.

As for the point you make about Atheist, listen to Meshuggah (though it may pain you to do so, they are so bad), they are the perfect example of how something so chaotic, dissonant and disjointed can be perfectly regimented and structured.

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Posted by Mastodon2

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Posted by warglory

I never said these bands were straight up jazz. They are still metal, but they do have jazz influence. No, its not improvisational, but death metal is much too technical to provide a good landscape for improv (and jazz does not have to be improvised).

For proper evidence, listen to Atheist's "Elements" album, in particular the song Air. How you can call this song completely structured is beyond me. Hell, the entire album is disjointed.

My point is that you called the genre a very bland and simplistic form of music, and what I am saying is that it can be very complex. To call Death's Individual Thought Patterns simplistic would be a sin.

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You seem to be dropping the Jazz name in the way that a lot of uneducated metal journos are doing these days, the entire foundation of Jazz is inprovisation, throwing harmonies and odd meters into a song doesnt make it Jazz, but at the same time, straight up imrpov doesnt either. And you cannot say that Death Metal is too technical for improvisation, no music is.

As for the point you make about Atheist, listen to Meshuggah (though it may pain you to do so, they are so bad), they are the perfect example of how something so chaotic, dissonant and disjointed can be perfectly regimented and structured.

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Meshuggah? Are you kidding me? They are perhaps one of the most structured mainstream modern metal bands. Disjointed is not a word I would toss around witrh Meshuggah in the same sentence. While I don't agree with the term, many fans call Meshuggah "math metal" for obvious reasons. They are probably about as far away from jazz as you can get. This leads me to Atheist, how can you respond to my point by comparing Atheist and Meshuggah when they sound absolutely nothing alike?

Next, yes Jazz is based on improvisation, but only the most die hard elitists of jazz concur that all jazz must be freeform. If this were truly a widely accepted concept, then artists such as Duke Eillington, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, the entirety of the swing movement, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie and even more modern artists like John Zorn, Bela Fleck and Galactic would not be considered jazz because they have composed albums of their works.

Here are some examples for readers of the debate of composed non-improvised thrash and death metal WITH jazz influences:

Watchtower - The Eldritch

Atheist's Steve Flynn on drums. This is anything but boring and simplistic drumming

Atheist - Mother Man live

Ephel Duath

Here is an exmple of Meshuggah. Perhaps to some listeners it may seem a bit disjointed a first, but Meshuggah are simply highly technical metal containing nothing but calculated music. I am actually a fan of this band.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=U5YEqmIIdj8

Stemm - Face the Pain One of the Official Songs of UFC
Stemm - Fallen " " " "
Stemm - 13 years " " " "
Stemm - Inside " " " "
Black Flood Diesel - Lost Cause Official Song for UFC Beatdowns VOL. 1

Anybody no Matt Serra's entrance song at 69 ??

hillbilly delux

Gun's N' Roses- Rocket Queen

Bullet For My Valentine - Tears Don't Fall
Audioslave - Revelations
Three Days Grace - One X
Atreyu - Aint Love Grand
Billy Talent - River Below
Metallica - And Justice For All..., Master Of Puppets, Sad But True, Wherever I May Roam, Damage Inc., For Whome The Bell Tolls.

Decapitated - Spheres of Madness
Beneath the Massacre - Nevermore
The Faceless - Ghost of a Stranger

Van Halen- Complete Zero

CAB - Night Splash

Fantastic Jazz fusion from one of my favourite bands, featuring one of the worlds best, and most underrated guitarists, Tony Macalpine



Totally amazing guitarist, Classically trained Pianist, a true virtuoso in this age of fake musical heroes.

7 string player too, a man of sense.

I've been rocking the new Manowar and new Ensiferum.

The Manowar has some great songs, but not enough of them and way too many interludes. Cool idea, but some more metal would have been nice.

The new Ensiferum is one of the best albums I've ever heard. I was worried that when they original guitarist/vocalists/song writer left, they'd go downhill in a hurry, especially considering they got the dude from Norther to replace him, as Norther hasn't been good in years. Low and behold, this album is amazing from start to finish.

Nonpoint - Alive and Kicking

Just got done rocking out to some Social Distortion and Skynyrd. I know, quite an odd playlist.

NP: Herbie Hancock - Headhunters

The biggest selling Jazz album of all time, one hell of an improvisational odyssy.

Fasedown- Hypocrite

A Tribe Called Quest - Award Tour

Weezer - Perfect Situation

BassHunter - Boten Anna

One of the best techno songs ever!!!!!

Kottonmouth Kings - King Klick

The means- Where the truth is told

The Lady is a Tramp - Frank Sinatra

Wavy Gravy - DJ Sasha

Liquid Swords - Wu Tang

KMFDM - Anarchy

My Favorite Things from the Sound of Music
no, i dont have the soundtrack. my wife and daughter are playing the piano.

Frontier Psychiatrist-The Avalanches

Suite-pee -- System