Metal Infestation

So you may have discovered from my previous postings, that I am rather fond of metal. No, I don't mean steel or silver! I mean that fantastic genre of music which is sometimes brutal and sometimes rather beautiful.

The problems I have found, since becoming a fan of metal, are the dreaded metal forums!!! I like talking to other metal fans, don't get me wrong, most of my mates are huge metallers, but these forums seem to be filled with over opinionated, elitist, egomaniacs. Now I'm opinionated, so if someone rubs me up the wrong way, I do get rather bitchy. So me in one of these forums = chaos!

Elitism in metal seems to be a big problem I have found over the past 10 years I've been listening. Yup I am fairly new compaired to most, that doesn't mean my opinion is less important than that of someone who's been listening to metal since they were in the womb, and my opinion isn't any more important than someone who's been into it all for six months.

There are a lot of bands which are classed under "nu metal" which a lot of the elitists won't accept as being metal. The Slipknots, Limp Bizkits and Korns of the world. Sure they're not the best bands on the planet, but they're metal whether these people like it or not (I'd rather not class them under metal, even if I do own their albums and am rather fond of Limp Bizkit).

I also hate the people who think their bands are better than yours. Sure I wind people up about their tastes, and I'll tell them they listen to crap metal, but I'm just a big wind up merchant, it's your choice at the end of the day (and if you want to listen to crap, so be it, haha!). I know not everyone has the supreme taste in music I have, but then again, it'd be boring if everyone did listen to the same as me, I'd never get to see the bands I wanted, and I'm sure if my mates didn't listen to different stuff, then I wouldn't discover new music, and that would be pretty dull!

So after one forum too many, fed up of the elitism and the insults (I will throw my horns any which way I like thank YOU very much), I decided I would start my own little metal community on Myspace, which is one where I have to approve people before they join (elitism? No, I just want to keep it free of spammers). It's actually turning into a nice little group, though very quiet at the moment.

Sound ideal? http://groups.myspace.com/MetalInfestation

Musical Phases/The Hunt For New Music

I have a terrible habit of having musical phases. I guess it ties in with the obsessive compulsive I'm sure I mentioned in a previous blog, which runs in my family, but I will go through a phase of listening to certain bands, a certain style or just one singular band. For example, I've been listening to a lot of Opeth, Blinded Colony and Threat Signal recently. Before that, I was between In Flames, Soilwork and Terror 2000, and the other year, I was only listening to industrial bands.

After a few weeks of listening to the same albums over and over, you get a little bit bored. I've been trying to bring in other bands, but I need something totally fresh to break me out of this. I have gone off all my metal at one point in the past and listened to crooner music, Rat Pack/Frank Sinatra/Dean Martin, for a good few weeks!

So I am currently seeking a mixture of bands really. I want to find more doom style stuff, along the same lines as Katatonia, Anathema, Tiamat, Swallow The Sun and Novembre (who have elements of melodeath in them), more melodeath stuff along the same lines as Opeth, Soilwork, In Flames and Blinded Colony, or just some metal which I really should have discovered a long time ago by myself!

I have a Last.FM account, http://www.last.fm/user/mentalinfest, which may help anyone wanting to recommend me some music. I am pretty fussy about vocals. It seems to drive people around the bend when they're recommending me new music! I would have been a big fan of Smashing Pumpkins, for example, if Billy Corgan didn't sound like he was singing through his nose! And I don't like black metal. I can't be doing with the high pitched girly sounding squeely vocals, I like my metal in the same way I like my men... With balls!

So please feel free to leave comments of recommendations for me to check out! I would really appreciate your help in my hunt for new music!