Something heavier...?
Posted by: GaryW on 05 March 2002
Flicking through this forum it appears that most Naim owners are into the classical,jazz and easy listening side of things.
Whilst I listen to odd bit of classical, I predominantly listen to Thrash/Death Metal, Punk, etc. Is anyone else out there into this sort of thing or does the cost of Naim equipment tend to preclude people with these tastes (don't flame me, I am a Naim owner!!!
)?
On another related note, anyone else feel that a well produced, technically excellent thrash/speed metal album would would highlight a whole different set of pro's and con's in a system than a solo guitarist, female vocalist, etc?
I ask this because at the Bristol show, the majority of music being used for demo's was very easy on the ear. Lot's of Naim label type stuff, classical, bit of jazz. There didn't seem to be any variety. Whilst I could appreciate that the sound itself was often fantastic, there wasn't any attempt to show that the system's capabilities extended into other realms.
Therefore it would be nearly impossible for me to make judgements on what I would like to audition for my next upgrade(s).
I don't think it was just my timing with my visits either, as (where possible) I had a flick through the records and CD's that the manufacturers had brought with them.
Heaviest thing I found all day was the mind-numbingly dull Staind album.
Well, that's my little rant done...
Posted on: 11 March 2002 by Paul Ranson
A long time ago BBC2 used to have a weekday evening arts review type show. They had music and stuff.
One evening they showed a music compilation and titled it 'Yes we have no Nirvana'. One of the bands that they'd recorded in the studio was 'Rage against the machine' doing (IIRC) 'Bullet in the Head'. So I went out and bought the album...
Paul
Posted on: 11 March 2002 by Former member
A friend at work lent me the (1st?) album a few years back. I enjoyed it for three or four tracks, but then began to flag.
<sigh> I may have to face the fact that I really am becoming a boring old fart.
I don't think I'm stuck in the past - I loved grunge for example. I think that part of the reason is I liked the fact that bands like Zep, Nirvana weren't devastatingly loud all the time.
I'll keep fighting it, though I'm already beginning to wonder where my Dad left his Mantovani LPs
Posted on: 11 March 2002 by Former member
Sincerely happy to share the music ! This is a great beauty of this forum... to discover completely new stuff.
I would love to recommend you KorN's first album, yet I CANNOT - without any reserve - because it is hard edged, somewhat very intense (should I say raw or rude ?)and therefore quite difficult to get into (it took me 2 years to appreciate it but now, I cannot live without it !).
Recording quality is absolutely awesome though (try the drums on track 6th of the first album).
Avoid other RATM albums, the first one is a one off (the rest sucks, sadly). Surprisingly, the RATM guitarist is graduated from the Harvard University (law if I remember well) !!! Or so I've been told.
Also you can try Machine Head's first (and to a lesser extent second one) album which is also great (it is called Burn my eyes), powerful with low tuned riffs. Sound quality is average however.
Intense stuff also so recommended with reserve...
Posted on: 11 March 2002 by Jez Quigley
Mantovani? Now you're talking Nick. mmmm..musical white chocolate. Anyone know when the remastered complete works box set is coming out?
Posted on: 11 March 2002 by Jez Quigley
Nick, cheer yourself up with a complete contrast to the stuff in this thread, have a listen to the reissued Orchestra Baobab 'Pirates'. Some fabulous guitar on there of a very different kind with a sengalese/cuban beat. Loverly.
Posted on: 12 March 2002 by samo7
DO YOURSELF A FAVOUR AND LOOK UP THIS CLASSIC STUFF, SOCIAL DISTORTION, THE FORERUNNERS OF AMERICAN PUNK WAY BACK WHEN, ESPECIALLY THE MIKE NESS SOLO STUFF THAT CAME OUT IN THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS...
ALSO, ON AN EQUALLY HIGH NOTE, CHECK OUT SOME OF GARY FLOYDS' BANDS OVER THE YEARS, "THE DICKS", "SISTER DOUBLE HAPINESS" AND ESPECIALLY "BLACK KALI MA", PROBABLY THE BEST PUNK/METAL/ROCK ALBUM OF THE NINETIES...EACH OF THESE TO GUYS HAVE VERY UNIQUE VOCALS THAT WILL QUICKLY SHOOT THEM TO THE TOP OF YOUR "MUST LISTEN AGAIN" LISTS. CRANK IT UP AND SHAKE THE COBWEBS FROM THAT TIRED OLD SYSTEM AND BREATHE A BIT OF LIFE FROM "THEM THAR CONES"
Posted on: 13 March 2002 by ejl
The new album just out from the band And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead is called "Source Tags and Codes". I got this two days ago and it's great -- loud, driving, straight-ahead rock and roll.
quote:
friend of mine describes all this new metal stuff as jock-rock – i.e. the music of
the high school bores who were good at sports / being an arsehole, whose idea of
a good time is setting a new high school bench press record. This is not the typical
demographic of rock ‘n’ roll! Rock music should be played by losers who need to
take loads of drugs and drop out of school to get chicks.
Tony,
I agree; certainly most of the stuff on the radio is dreadfully overproduced and contrived. But there have been plenty of bands in recent years with a sense of humor and a real edge. Rarely do these receive airplay, often because the stuff is deemed too offensive. Some example bands and albums of the last decade have been:
-The Butthole Surfers (especially "Hairway to Steven", "Locust Abortion Technician" and "Electriclarryland")
-The Flaming Lips (especially "Transmissions from the Satellite Heart" and the recent "The Soft Bulletin")
-Ed Hall ("Gloryhole")
-The Boredoms (a very noisy band, but "Pop Tatari" is interesting and funny).
-The Jesus Lizard ("Liar")
Most of the bands stem from the American "Bible Belt" south (Oklahoma, Texas, etc.), which is unsurprising.
In a lot of ways, these bands are 90s versions of The Soft Boys (I'm thinking of "Underwater Moonlight" especially, which was a subversive album in many ways) and The Damned (first two albums). In other words intelligent, funny, edgy music without being too punk or arty-farty. Bands like Sonic Youth and The Fall are influences as well
Posted on: 13 March 2002 by Ron The Mon
Music doesn't get much heavier than Motorhead and their album "On Parole" (a re-release) is a very well recorded album. In fact I broke-in a pair of SBLs with the motorcycle engine on the title song/band name Motorhead. I always thought it was a Triumph 650, but the SBLs revealed a different beast! And the version of Iron Horse on this record is a definite tester of hearing the difference in a well tuned set of tom-toms as well as tune and timing in general. I always thought Larry's guitar on Iron Horse was out of tune until I first heard it on a good hi-fi!
If you want my opinion of really heavy(as in War Pigs heavy), the only thing heavier is the Young Gods. Their song Skinflowers off of the T.V. Sky album is HEAVY!! (BTW, any of you Europeans see them on their latest tour?)
Regarding Metalurgica; IMO, they always sucked, but when they recorded a Bob Seger song, they became a parody of their own selves. Sad. I feel sorry for you youngsters who grew up on them. Listen to The Slider by T-Rex, or Fireball and In Rock by Deep Purple, or Ace Of Spades and Overkill by Motorhead, or any of the first 7 Black Sabbath records,.......then throw that crap-rock away.
In Rock, on 10, on a Naim hi-fi; Now that'll put a smile on your face!
Ron The Mon
Posted on: 13 March 2002 by ejl
as in War Pigs heavy, is The Melvins' album "Stoner Witch". Total over-the-top early nineties production values. Other Melvins records are heavy too, but get a bit tiresome (Stoner Witch is their best).
Posted on: 13 March 2002 by Khalid
...some industrial. 'Nine Inch Nails' certainly comes to mind. The 'Broken' EP was a blast. Heavy guitar riffs dominating a soundscape of industrial 'noise'. Some may feel it’s a cauldron of noise, but for me, its pure adrenaline pumping music. Although pretty much covering the same terrain, each album is its own adventure though. The earlier 'Pretty Hate Machine' was mostly electronic sounding whilst the later 'Downward Spiral' and 'Fragile' mixed both earlier influences. In my book, Trent Reznor's a genius. The lyrics he writes about are gut wrenching and darkly poetic. In the song 'I do not want this', he seems to be on a voyage of soul-searching and comes to a conclusion of regret and anger. The song ends in a somewhat appropriately misplaced remedy of ambition driven by anger: " i want to know everything / i want to be everywhere / i want to fu*k everyone in the world / i want to do something that matters."
Posted on: 14 March 2002 by JohanR
I would love to do some headbanging to Deep Purple / Nirvana / Metallica (or what ever), but:
- I have Neigbours.
- Naim systems in general (NAP 500, DBL:s excused) do not do rock consert levels.
So I'm stuck with "easy on the ear" stuff.
JohanR
Posted on: 14 March 2002 by Former member
Interesting posts so far.
It's suprising and disappointing that 'nu metal' is the closest most people have got to 'heavy' music. I find these bands too manufactured and clean cut - like spoilt rich kids having a tantrum. There are a hell of a lot of REALLY 'heavy' bands out there that are both well recorded and creative - most of whom come under the Industrial moniker.
One of my reasons for buying naim is that many of these bands have complex and multi-layered structures, and other manufacturers really can't reproduce music like this without it sounding too confusing or polite.
Bands like Front 242 (Evil off/Up Evil era), Haujobb, Alex Empire, Rammstein, Neurosis, Gridlock, Die Warzau etc all create complex collages building music around any theme you can think of - futuristic soundscapes, wonderful textures, deep tuneful basslines, jazz influences, fusing many different styles together to create quite wonderful 'heavy' music.
I would recommend Haujobb's Polarity to anyone wanting to listen to something different. It has heavy songs, soundscapes, lots of different interesting sounds, not a real instrument in sight, beautiful production with a depth I've not heard equalled, and your naim system will love being given a good workout!
Ian
Posted on: 14 March 2002 by Chris Brandon
A bit of Purple,Scorpions,Sabbath,Metallica,Motorhead - Goes down Damn well ! (seen them all live on numerous occasions - Excellent)
Of the more modern stuff,then for me it has to be Rammstein "Mutter" - Its one big wall of sound that kicks the living daylights out of your sound system ! A few selected tracks later,it feels akin to having consumed a very high dose of caffiene ! Superb for an addrenaline boost !
Regards
Chris
(I was having a chat with my father who is also into heavy metal,but his tastes are of the Brass veriaty 
)
Posted on: 14 March 2002 by Former member
Ian,
This sounds very interesting. I hopped off to Metropolis Records - Haujobb and listen to the samples there, and again at Amazon - mostly 99 and Polarity.
They seem more like a subversive Electronica band (with dark overtones of Underworld) and very good.
However, I'd like to hear more extensive samples than the 30 seconds or so available at the above sites before shelling out - do you know where I can hear more?
Posted on: 14 March 2002 by GaryW
As a warning, I'm not going to pretend that any of these are original, well produced or have great musical ability (though some have all), I just love 'em.
In no particular order
Screeching Weasel "BoogadaBoogadaBoogada" (Pop Punk)
Slayer "Reign in Blood" (Shouldn't need an intro to some of you) BTW just tried this tonight with my new FlatCap 2. Wow!!! And it isn't even warm yet...
At the Drive-In "Relationship of Command" (Takes a few spins to get into)
Sepultura "Beneath the Remains"
Alice Donut "The Untidy Suicides of your Degenerate Children"
The Ataris "Blue Skies and Broken Hearts..."
Slipknot "Iowa" (Yeah, they look dumb, but I love it)
Emperor "IX Equilibrium"
Soilent Green "Sewn Mouth Secrets"
System of a Down "Toxicity"
Coroner "R.I.P."
Accused "More Fun than an Open Casket Funeral"
Violence "Eternal Nightmare"
Time to go shopping for some of the previous recommendations. Hello Credit Card...
Posted on: 15 March 2002 by Khalid
[QUOTE]Originally posted by GaryW:
"At the Drive-In "Relationship of Command" (Takes a few spins to get into)"
If you've not done so already, do try out the Vaya Ep as well. It's another good one.
Posted on: 16 March 2002 by Not For Me
I can tell you where all this Nu-metal is going wrong...
Tooooo fast. Tooooo samey
Try a nice sloooooow band for a change.
Earth
Sunn 0)))
Mezbow
Distintegrator
RND Technologies
Put that on you LP12 and smoke it.
DS
Posted on: 16 March 2002 by ejl
Posted on: 16 March 2002 by Jez Quigley
Since my briks settled in I have been in a CD buying frenzy. Thanks to you and Khoi I now have a whole new vein to plunder. I need to sort out the amping as well now as the 250 gets too hot when playing this stuff at the required volume, but unlike your sweet home Alabama, it would be hard to describe Yorkshire as hot and sticky.
Posted on: 17 March 2002 by Dave J
Have you heard Lost Prophet's album 'thefakesoundofprogress'? The first track's a cracker.
Dave
Posted on: 16 July 2002 by Former member
Hi,
Wow, someone else here likes Opeth! Opeth have always been one of my favourite bands.
I listen to a very wide range of music, ranging all the way from Opera, through all types of Classical, to the whole gamut of Metal - including the really heavy, extreme stuff that consists of bands with unpronounceable names and completely unreadable logos ;^). I'd estimate that I've got around ~400 Metal CDs, ~200 Classical CDs, ~20 unclassifiable (i.e just plain strange) CDs, and unfortunately <10 Jazz CDs. I'm only just getting into Jazz, so I'm still trying to discover just which types of Jazz and which artists I like...
The frustrating aspect of so many Metal CDs is the
appalling production values. (And don't even mention the terms "Production" and "Black Metal" in the same breath - even Emperor's "IX Equilibrium", whilst infinitely better than most, is still relatively poor
). In general (unsurprisingly), the more "underground" the band, the worse it sounds, production-wise; Machine Head/Pantera/et al. sound excellent, unfortunately I can't say the same of my Abigor or Dark Throne CDs.
Ah well. I'm continually amazed at how good the production is on Naxos CDs (especially their recent discs), given their bargain price.
I don't think there is any better way to confuse someone than by first playing Magdalena Kozená singing some Mozart/Gluck/Myslivecek arias followed by a good blast of Nile.
Different music for different moods.
Regards,
John.
. So in case some people here don't know about them here are some other great acts of recent years. In this case straight-ahead, hard-driving rock and roll -- no metal, grunge, punk, or techno. Guaranteed not to be overproduced.