Two of my favourite things are thrash metal and beer. The only thing that makes either better is the prefix 'free'. I spent last night enjoying both courtesy of Earache Records at the first playing of Evile's new album Five Serpents Teeth, scheduled for release on September 26th, and I am quite marvelously hungover as a result. Being as the full report is going on to MetalasFuck imminently I shan't regurgitate the evening here but needless to say that me and Shithouse, posing as our photographer and doing a bloody good job, had a belter.
One of our lengthier Stella-fuelled conversation was about genres and band classification. The beauty of Evile is that they're a thrash band. That's it. Simples. However, according to Heavy Metal Encyclopedia, an Android app available now via Marketplace, there are 86 genres of metal.
86.
Now although the app includes 'Punk' and 'Oi' as two genres, the rest are pretty legit, although what the fuck 'Humppa' is is beyond me. Seemingly that's what Finntroll is. I thought they were folk metal. And herein lies the problem.
I'm pretty sure no two people categorise bands the same. Iron Maiden are heavy metal, Megadeth are thrash, Sonic Syndicate are shit; this much we can all agree on. But I recently came across El Schlong who have been described as prog, post-hardcore, spazcore, all of which are broadly correct. Children of Bodom are, in my opinion, a melodic death metal band but are often referred to as blackened death metal, Opeth are everything from death to prog and back again. So despite being a good app, it's a tad flawed on the basis that the vast majority of us categorise bands differently.
It's worth downloading though, predominantly because it's linked to Spotify and has a vast amount of bands listed, although it doesn't have band bios which is a bit shit. There's also a lack of detail on the nastier genres, such as goregrind (which lists Carcass - I thought they were grindcore?...) I'm sure this will be updated over time though.
Another app worth exploring, particularly for fanboys like me, is the new DevilDriver app - tonnes of music, photos, a fan chat board, merch and band info. Both this and Heavy Metal Encyclopedia are free on Android, which is marvelous.
So now Metal Harmony officially does it all; news, reviews, tours, technology updates; you have to wonder if you'll ever really need another music resource ever again?
M
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2 comments:
"Children of Bodom are, in my opinion, a melodic death metal band but are often referred to as blackened death metal, Opeth are everything from death to prog and back again ... There's also a lack of detail on the nastier genres, such as goregrind (which lists Carcass - I thought they were grindcore?...)"
CoB are NOT blackened death metal, not even at a stretch of the imagination. And yes Carcass are grinders.
The disturbing thing about this is that kids go "OH THAT BAND IS THIS" because they trust an app rather than their own ears, or a solid listening history, or a reliable source. It is written, therefore it is.
I wish apps like this didn't exist. Why not just go to Encyclopedia Metallum and be done with it? Surely most of us don't need a quick genre reference on the run... and if we do, we have smartphones that allow us access to the metal archives, no?
You make a valid point Biodagar, but everyone is going to have their own idea about what means what, why who is this genre, why they're that genre, etc.
Apps like this are definitely not gospel but they are good for drunken idiots like me who forget who it was who did that album (yes, we have the 'net but apps are generally more specific).
But listening to stuff and making up your own mind is the only real way of categorising.
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