Music in 2008

[Merusk]

There was an interview with Lars I saw back sometime around S&M's release where they were talking about how he had to play some of the old songs again.  His comment at the time was he was listening to Lightning and Justice and couldn't believe he had ever played that fast and wasn't able to replicate it.

I'd put part of it down to drugs and alcohol allowing him to ignore pain, another part down to giving up on being as in-shape as a tennis player would have been and part of it down as just being too damn old now.

[Nebu]

I cut several demo tapes back in the 80's with three different working bands.  Most of it I can't even come close to replicating today.  Youth, amphetamines, and playing a lot are a powerful combination. 

[HaemishM]

I still haven't heard any of it. The main complaint I hear is that Axl lost his voice, and can't do the high screams anymore. Which makes them not exactly GnR.

The album is terrible if you are expecting a GNR album, because without Slash, it's just not Guns and Roses. The songwriting is pretty pedestrian. It really is mediocre as a random album, but horrible as a GNR piece that we've waited a decade for.

EDIT: As for Metallica, I fucking hate St. Anger. Not only does it not sound like Metallica, it sounds like shit. The drum production is so overpowering, the songs are uninteresting and the guitar playing is boring. The songs just seem to drone on and on with no fucking point. Death Magnetic is MUCH better than anything they've produced since And Justice, and that includes the black album, which I always felt was rather mediocre.

[Righ]

If only it were just age and fitness though. It would be stupid for me to compare Ulrich to great octogenarian jazz drummers because he was never anything truly special, but there are plenty of decent metal drummers who are well past their prime - at least a decade older - who can't match the speed of their youth but who don't hit the toms like they're tenderizing meat or lose track of their own timing. Most of them "cheat" by using double-kick and double triple-kick pedals and similar tools to keep some of the speed, but most don't have any problem maintaining accents on the toms. At this point, were I to pick a drummer from the Metallica members, Ulrich would be my last choice. Certainly most bass players would do a better job with a couple of hours to get used to a kit. I'd rather listen to a Roland TR-808 than Ulrich today.

[Tarami]

This is strange. I don't see Amon Amarth - Twilight of the Thunder God mentioned even once in this thread. I'm confused and a little sad.

Shitty MySpace, but hey, it works!

I expect the vocalist, Hegg, to be fully mute by the time he turns 40.

And yeah, Ulrich never was much of a drummer, on any album. But mass exposure and fanboys certainly seem to have earned him some additional credit.

[Selby]

Not only does it not sound like Metallica, it sounds like shit. The drum production is so overpowering, the songs are uninteresting and the guitar playing is boring.

Yes.  The C# tuning is about as interesting as it gets, and tons of other bands have written catchier and more memorable songs than anything on St. Anger.  I dislike the snare sound personally, but can appreciate it for what it is on a good album it works with (not this album in my opinion).  But then I never was a rabid Metallica fan nor have I been a semi-serious fan of them in well over a decade and a half, so my opinion may not count to some people.

As far as metal drummers not aging well, Dave Lombardo is still going after almost 30 years and is still pretty damn impressive.  All of the others I can think of have either accepted their age and adjused accordingly or haven't recorded anything in a while for me to judge.

[Righ]

Mikkey Dee of Motorhead is 45 - the same age as Ulrich, was always much faster and is still as astonishingly fast as he ever was. Though for the award of "absurdly fit for their age" I'd consider Nicko McBrain, 54 of Iron Maiden. He still won't use a double-kick pedal, and he doesn't appear to have slowed down at all. Of course, he's fucking sensational, way beyond the level of ability of most metal drummers. Here's hoping Tomas Haake can keep going at least as long because he's just amazing.

[Grimwell]

I was given Death Magnetic for Christmas and have been listening to it while I drive, etc. to let it sink in. It's not the old stuff, but they aren't the old band. That's just how it is and I can accept that. I don't like most of their work over the last decade, but I didn't let that taint the new CD's chance with me.

In my personal view, it's a very good CD for Metallica at their current age. The songs are good, and I get some of them stuck in my head, and for the first time in 20 years they are playing something that I'm considering picking up a guitar to learn. Just for the fun of it. They haven't done anything like for me since ...and Justice.

I give it a passing grade. Even if they are showing signs of age and the pleasures that wealth brings.

[Mrbloodworth]

There was an interview with Lars I saw back sometime around S&M's release where they were talking about how he had to play some of the old songs again.  His comment at the time was he was listening to Lightning and Justice and couldn't believe he had ever played that fast and wasn't able to replicate it.

I'd put part of it down to drugs and alcohol allowing him to ignore pain, another part down to giving up on being as in-shape as a tennis player would have been and part of it down as just being too damn old now.

After those two albums, he has only ever played the same beats for years now.

[Selby]

Mikkey Dee of Motorhead

The best part about Mikkey Dee is that he goes in, learns his drum tracks in a day, and lays them all down in a few hours.  Then reproduces them with considerably more energy live than on the record.  Quite amazing when you hear about some bands spending months getting tracks laid down.

Nicko is in a class all of his own, no doubt.

[Merusk]

I'm in no way saying Lars is good or has an excuse, I'm just postulating.   I've always been of the opinion that if you were listening to Metallica for the drums you were doing it wrong.  There's a reason they never had extended drum solos like they did Kirk's guitar solos, and you all have covered them.   I accept his mediocre presence because I know "the band" was always him and James and they (or at least Lars) have only seen Kirk and Bassist_of_the_year as filler.  Which is stupid in its own right.

[Righ]

Oh you had to bring up bassists. It reminded me of Sunn O)))'s drone 'interpretation' of For Whom The Bells Toll, entitled "F.W.T.B.T. (I Dream of Lars Ulrich Being Thrown Through the Bus Window Instead of My Mystikal Master Kliff Burton)". Unkind, but amusing.

[stray]

I don't really like the new Metallica stuff either, but there's something about all of those later albums where I can kind of dig the direction they're going for (kind of a slower tempo biker metal thing, i guess), but they haven't executed it nearly as well as they did their old stuff. They were popular back in the day, even as a metal band, because they had so many hooks. And that's pretty much all their lacking now. The change is sound is nothing I'll complain about though.

[Sky]

Mikkey Dee of Motorhead is 45

The Abigail band is one of my favorites from the day, though I do favor the original Mercyful Fate lineup. Nicko is also consistently amazing, the first of our two 'main' drummers favored the single foot method. And let's not forget ye olde Dave Lombardo!

On Metallica, another strike against them would be replacing an amazingly talented and visionary bass player with a fucking douchebag who plays crappy metal with a pick. Then again, perfect fit for Lars. Maybe if they can rediscover the passion James put into St Anger, having Trujillo around might revive them some. Then again, I had pretty high hopes for that with this new album, given Trujillo + Rubin. Maybe I'm most disappointed by Rubin for greenlighting so much of that and not kicking Lars' ass.

[stray]

Well, they didn't exactly "replace" said visionary bass player.

Newstead was pretty mediocre though. But.. I came to the conclusion that they just didn't want much of a real band member.. someone who wouldn't assert themselves much. And perhaps, by doing so, they also limited themselves to mediocre bass players. He happened to be the pick of the litter.

Then he asserted himself anyways, and got booted.

[Selby]

Newstead was pretty mediocre though.

How could you tell?  It's not like he was ever in the mix enough to hear!  Might as well have just not had his amp turned on =P

[stray]

Sadly, that's the case for most metal. But you can kind of tell when a bass player has some decent chops within metal structures/production.. the odd fill-in will sneak through. The lesser talented bass players are lost in the mix because they're also just choosing to follow root notes.

And then, when you do get a few glimpses of his bass coming out front, it's not mind blowing or anything. Just a simple arpeggio run here and there.

[HaemishM]

I thought Newstead was a decent bass player, but yeah, after And Justice, they didn't really let him out of his cage. Justice had enough songs written by Burton to bring him in the mix a bit more, but after... not so much. Of course, Bob Rock's playing on St. Anger DEFINES phoning it in.

[Merusk]

Listening to Suicide & Redemption off of DM today I paid closer attention to the bass line.  Trjullio isn't exactly stellar in regards to playing anything other than a mirror of the rythm track himself.  This is an instrumental where there's several bits that its just Bassline and all we get is a constant repetiton of the same chords and beats as if he's the band's metronome... something the drums are more than capable of doing, and is all Lars has done for a while anyway.  Methinks it's a symptom of the band leadership more than the bassist themselves.

[stray]

If that's the case, then it is the band leadership. Because Trujillo funked it up in Infectious quite a bit. link.

[edit] I actually haven't listened to that in a looonnng time. 

[Sky]

Wow, I haven't heard that in ages, either. Brings back a lot of memories of living on the west coast in that period. There were /so/ many slap players back then, which was actually cool for a more Cliff-style guy like myself.

I agree with the band leadership thing, there's not really much doubt there. But Cliff's stuff speaks for itself, and I've seen both Newsted and Trujillo play and there's no contest as to which is the better bassist imo.

[UnSub]

What makes me angry: Hillary Duff sampling "Personal Jesus" for her song.

I wouldn't have minded if it was a good song. It really isn't.

[Engels]

At what point does sampling turn into an indicator that you have no creativity?

[Sky]

What does Diddy do?

[Mrbloodworth]

What makes me angry: Hillary Duff sampling "Personal Jesus" for her song.

I wouldn't have minded if it was a good song. It really isn't.

She seems to be doing the Britney thing now. The end is near.

[HaemishM]

Fuck's sake, you can't even call that a new song. It's just "Personal Jesus" with bad mixing and new, shitty lyrics.

[Righ]

I hear what you're saying, but Personal Jesus was more than just those parts looping over and over and over. However, there's more Depeche Mode than new content in it. We're past the age of 'sampling' at this point - this is the sort of suck that is a product of the 'mash up' generation. It can all go to hell along with Kid Rock.

[Sky]

There was some goddamned mashup on tv the other night. Somehow I've avoided that particular brand of stink up until now. Go pick up a guitar, kid.

[stray]

I think there's an art to sampling.. especially scratching.. but mashups aren't really it.

[Jobu]

I'm gonna dip my toe into this pool, though I have to admit most of the prevailing taste around here is.... not shared by me, to put it nicely.

The second Cold War Kids album was good, I thought. The songwriting got a lot better from their first album, maybe at the expense of slowing/dulling down their sound a little. Also loved Portishead's Third (well... probably half of it). Honorable mentions for something fun and unexpected to Flobots, Gogol Bordello (oops, this came out in '05), and Delta Spirit.

The stuff that I really liked this year, though, was old. Otis Redding Live in Paris and London is a freaking fantastic album. And the Buena Vista Social Club at Carnegie Hall is also awesome... and I can't understand a single word of Spanish.

Looking at my music library sorted by year, I'm starting to see 2007 was way way waaaaaaaay better. Or maybe I still have to get through catching up with '08 releases.

[stray]

I would agree.. But then, most of the great stuff of 2007 for me were undiscovered gems that I didn't catch in 2007. Perhaps it'll be the case for 2008 as well. In fact, a lot of new shit I'm digging is from early 2008... I just didn't hear about it then.

[Endie]

Looking at my music library sorted by year, I'm starting to see 2007 was way way waaaaaaaay better. Or maybe I still have to get through catching up with '08 releases.

I totally agree: I really do think that 2007 had a better lineup than 2008.  It happens: for every 1991 you're going to get a 1990 (don't say "wah wah what about Ritual de la Habitual/Rust in Peace/Bona Drag/Stone Roses/Heaven or Las Vegas?" as every year has some good stuff in it...).

[Righ]

1990 worked for me, probably more so than 1991. At least that's what the essential albums in my online iTunes library suggest.

However, I'd agree that 2007 was stronger than 2008 for me too. 2008 started out much better then it ended. But sometimes its like this just after a year has passed - I found half my favorites from 2007 in 2008 anyhow - particularly the less well-known ones. Maybe there's a heap of 2008 gems that I still haven't heard.

[MrHat]

We voted for change, Pop Champagne.

[Segoris]

stuff.....Honorable mentions for something fun and unexpected to Flobots, Gogol Bordello (oops, this came out in '05), and Delta Spirit........

Flobots was '07, so take that one off your short '08 list :( I do think your description of 'fun and unexpected' is spot on for them though. Some songs on Fight with Tools were just great, and I enjoyed Platypus. Hopefully they stay around a while.

And I think I'm mostly in your area of differing taste with the majority on these boards. But it's also fun going through this thread as I'll probably listen to a couple of the songs and maybe find something new I do like.

For 2007 vs 2008:
Overall, I agree that '07 was much much better then '08 but I don't think 2008 was bad. Most notables in 2008 in my opinion would be the latest from Rise Against, Offspring, Apocalyptica, Floggin Molly, One Day as a Lion (fuck yes Zack De La Rocha), and Weezer. So with these bands, along with many others, I can't call 2008 a bad year. I just think of it as not a better year compared to 2007.

2007, in addition to about 15+ good to great albums, has produced two of my favorite side projects of recent years. Those being the first Puscifer studio album and The Night Watchman. You know it's a good year when Maynard gives you an album, I don't think anything else needs to be said about Puscifer. The Night Watchman, which is fucking amazing to see live, was just something I really enjoyed. Tom Morrello + friends, and yes, there are lots of friends, just bring nothing but a great time. He brings enough friends to have both a folk show and a rock show at the shows he put on during the "Just Tour", all for $10 dollars aka "The people's price". If only One Day as a Lion snuck into 2007 so I could feel good dubbing this the Year of the Side Project, oh well.