Sunday Sesh: The Metal Wishlist
MMMMMOOOOOAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR!
Almost a year ago to the day on the Sunday Sesh we discussed things we wanted to GTFO out of metal. Turns out there’s a fuck-tonne of shit that is an instant turn-off for some of us. Who would have thought? Here’s a brief list of some of the things our readers never wanted to hear again in metal:
- Crappy vocal styles/effects (Good Cop/Bad Cop etc.)
- Lame edge-lord gore themes
- Filler tracks (intros, interludes etc.)
- Corpse-paint
- Over-compressed production
- Monotonous lo-fi blasting
- Robb Flynn
- Cheesy gimmicks
- Chug riffs
- Elitists
- Bass drops
- Album cover shirt designs
- Djent
- OTT drumming
- Audio samples from films/TV
And guess what? We did it everyone. None of those things feature in metal anymore. Finally we can rejoice. So today, in order to celebrate, I would like everyone to think of something they want to hear more of. Maybe it’s a genre style, a lyrical theme, a distribution format (physical/digital/endocrinal implant), guest musicians, a certain instrument, some kind of festival/tour idea, something from the past/future, or even a style of album art you’re particularly fond of and would like to see more often.
My requests are pretty simple. Sure, I could pick a heap of things but right now, what I wanna hear more of, relates solely to tone and production. While it certainly wasn’t the first modern release to incorporate a thick natural tone, upcoming French death metal band Cadaveric Fumes’ Dimensions Obscure EP from last year really hammered home to me that there’s really no substitute for organic sounding recordings. Wenceslas’ guitar sound is apparently a result of a simple combination of left, right, and center tracks through a few vintage amps. And the resulting tone kept me coming back to the MLP on a daily basis; it didn’t take long for the riffs and songwriting to hook me, and days turned into weeks, then weeks into months.
Needless to say I was similarly impressed upon hearing Tomb Mold’s debut earlier this year, where the band clearly went out of their way to emulate a rawer sound that harkens back to the underground recordings of the 90’s, without falling into many of the associated pitfalls of the era. The result wasn’t as psychedelic or surfy as Cadaveric Fumes but the muddier sound suits the mephitic atmosphere conjured by the band’s name. I’m not saying heavily processed guitar tones don’t have their place in metal, but I do think that it’s well beyond time that more young bands recognise they don’t have to rely on those modern effects to make a quality contemporary metal album.
So what do you wanna hear/see more of in metal? Let’s hear your suggestions in comments section, maybe post an example if you can think of one.
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