If you’ve ever listened to a podcast I recorded, then you will know I’m the argumentative type. I love to debate things, and I’m always rolling things around in my head. “Thinkin Thursdays” is going to be a weekly column, where I, Fritz, give you a little insight into what is on my mind for the week.
This week I’ve been plagued by the over-saturation of genres. There are so many bands playing metal, and it gets to the point where “you’ve heard the album a million times before”. To me, this isn’t a problem, but to some …
Depending on how your brain is wired, you can hear the same album over and over again and never get tired of it. [I’m one of those] It’s no secret that I’m a big thrash metal fan, and I’ve been closely following the revival that is still in full swing, and I’ve loved every bloody second of it. So many people come at me, and say “oh this sounds like Slayer”, “there’s the Exodus”, “sounds like it could have been released in 86” blah, blah, blah. To me I L-O-V-E thrash metal, so wouldn’t I want a plethora of bands playing it the way it was meant to be played? It’s not to say they plagiarize the riffs, but it is indeed a re-hash of tried and true formulas, and I like that, a lot.
Due to the fact that there are so many bands these days, doing the same things, it becomes really hard for a band to stick out from the pack. I tend to look at a band or album, and ask myself “is this good for what it is?” As I mentioned earlier, I don’t mind re-hashing, but worshipping has to be done right.
Others don’t see things the same way. Lots and lots of people are starting to get sick of bands playing metal in a predictable vein. Messageboards are littered with people pleading for bands to spice up their metal recipes and add elements that they haven’t heard before. OK, I can understand it, but keep in mind metal has been going on for decades, and as it got older and more popular it led to the creation of more bands which then in turn created … the saturation problem.
Always remember bands do try to out-do each other, but after a while every trick has been pulled, and every new idea; usually isn’t a new idea. Can you really blame the artists at this point? How can you be different when there’s been hundreds even thousands before you trying to do just what you have set out to do?
What I believe needs to happen is easing up on artists, and realizing that it’s not so easy to write groundbreaking music when it’s been going on for nearly thirty years. There is only so much you can do within the confines of a genre, and I’m OK with that.
My message to everyone is ease up, take an album with a grain of salt, and judge it for it was trying to accomplish. Were they trying to play swe-death? Traditional? Thrash? And did they do it right?
More than likely, they did. You just aren’t seeing it.
