Music concepts you would like to see?

I would like to hear more doom or semi-doom metal bands that focus less on ambient layering of riffing and trudging tempos, instead changing the focus to odd structures, twitching rhythmic interplay, off-kilter lead playing and so on. Decembrance (Germany), Ghoulgotha, Umbra Nihil, and Thaclthi are some of the only bands I can think of approaching doom like this so far.

Post 23 by @How In Kraidable:

Stereogum also planned cover versions of Radiohead's "OK Computer" and R.E.M's "Automatic for the People" in their entirety. Each song was covered by a different music act.

edited 19th Mar '17 3:49:13 AM by tropeslave

Eliminating the trudging tempos kind of kills the doom vibes, but pretty much everything else you describe sounds refreshing.

I personally would love to hear more doom and sludge bands, particularly black metal-influenced acts in that arena, drawing on extreme music outside of the metal landscape. You do hear this in drone-doom a fair bit, but with the exception of Burmese and Indian, I can't think of that many more song-oriented bands outside of that niche who do this, or at least any which are still around. (Thoughts of Ionesco certainly played with free-jazz ideas, but they self-destructed over a decade ago.)

There are a lot of doom metal bands that weren't afraid to invest in riff change ups and aried tempos yet Pentagram, Trouble, Candlemass, and even Saint Vitus now and then still come off as gutsy, funereal fare. I feel that after doom got solidified as a genre, fundamental lessons from bands like these were forgotten for the most part.

Varying the tempo is not the same as going fast, though. I feel like doom is best when it has a healthy variety of textures and riffs and sonic approaches but tops out at mid-tempo or peaks higher only for the sake of emphatic contrast.

...funny, this. I'm listening to Mizmor, who fit that bill pretty well, although they are a black/doom act.

I wasn't talking about going fast even. I'm fine with a lot of doom metal that's mid paced to upbeat in an NWOBHM esque fashion like Briton Rites and The Lamp of Thoth as it can be as weighty and hard hitting as thrash without really sacrificing the raw density native to the genre.

A hair metal band which lives up to the name "Hair METAL". I'm sure there are some bands like that already, just throwing it out there.

A rock band with no guitars, again, sure there's some out there.

Offhand, the first thing I can think of for "rock band without guitars" is Atilla, Billy Joel's Old Shame psychedelic rock organ and drums duo. Maybe also Ben Folds Five, but that depends upon if you count distorted electric bass as a guitar, and upon how "rockin'" you wanted it to be. This is probably around as heavy as they ever got.

On the Cover Album concept, when various artists do cover a specific album, it's usually one of the most famous ones by an artist, but I think it would be more interesting if they were less likely ones. Say, less Ok Computer and Automatic For The People and more Pablo Honey and Monster. Oh, semi-related, a Ministry tribute album divided between Industrial Metal bands doing their early Synth-Pop material and synth pop bands doing their later industrial metal material - I guess that's an idea that would work for any number of artists who drastically shifted styles partway through their career.

edited 19th Apr '17 5:15:14 PM by MikeK

I really wanna check out that "Paradise By the Dashboard Light" cover, especially since I love the Elastic No-No Band.

As for a rock band with no guitars, it's not all the band does, but there is one Say Anything... album (Hebrews) where they don't use any guitars at all.

To the second question, there is a list of bass/drum duos alone here, and I could probably rattle off ten others in a slightly different vein if you pressed me.

This is a profoundly stupid idea that would never work, but for some reason I'm really interested in it as a theory: There have been cases where there have been competing lineups of the same band touring or even recording at the same time, but what if a band deliberately set out to do this? The simplest, least listener-confusion-inducing way I can think of this working is if a band has two singers/songwriters and both mutually agree to let each other do whatever they want under the group name, sort of I Am the Band but with two people: When you buy a Good Name For A Rock Band album or go to one of their shows, it might be the full original band, the two singers with a totally different backing group, the original band but with only one of the singers, or any combination thereof. The most complicated, but potentially hilarious, option is if you allow the name to be used by anyone who had anything to do with the first official recording, so that the newest GNFARB might be a guy who played tambourine on track 7 of the first album and a bunch of his friends playing a totally different genre of music.

edited 23rd May '17 7:54:02 PM by MikeK

About the "Hair metal band that puts the METAL in hair metal" are there any bands like that?

Bluegrass played on amplified electric versions of instruments.

Seriously, imagine the fiddle sounding like this and the banjo like this.

It relates to music but for other works so I don't know where to put it. I know Nintendo did something like this where the background music would change depending on the characters like in Super Mario World when Mario is on Yoshi they would add percussion.

I had an idea of having every main character represented by a string instrument and when they are on the screen or just talking they would add the instrument that they are represented by to the already existing music that is playing. When they leave that instrument will stop playing.

If you mean heavier than usual hair metal, W.A.S.P. is the first that comes to mind. Nothing even close to a pop sound (even their ballads are darker), but still melodic enough to fit in the hair metal genre. Skid Row (in paticular the Slave to the Grind album) might also qualify.

A rock album by a single artist that starts out as soft as electric-guitar-based music can be, but then each track is heavier than the last, until the final track is grindcore. The Mohs Scale Of Rock And Metal Hardness page could be used as a specific guideline, especially because if you did one track for each level, you'd have 11 songs, which is kind of average album length.

I was also recently reminded of this idea I had of a compilation where bands named after songs by other artists cover their namesake song. for instance Radiohead covering "Radio Head" or Bad Brains covering "Bad Brain".

edited 2nd Sep '17 9:52:25 PM by MikeK

Being a huge lotr geek. I would love to see a Power Metal band to that sings entirely in Tolkien's created language, Elvish.

I have long had the idea of a tribute album to female songwriters where all the songs are written entirely by women, all the instrumental parts are played by women, yet all the vocal parts are sung by men. A sort of twist on the “girl singer backed by men, singing songs written by men” thing which has been the norm in popular music for so long.

You need to hear the Einstein in Eden album, masterminded by Bernhard Jobski. It is exactly what you describe. It was made to commemorate some anniversary of the Berlin Philharmonic.

edited 13th Jan '18 9:21:40 AM by Bananaquit

I know that it might read as missing the entire point of the genre, possibly two, but I would love to listen to a traditional-leaning Country album with lyrics that is full on Genre Deconstruction for old country cliche. Something like taking the old favorite subject of country music - the "small town", and show it is actually a crappy place filled with poverty, racism and homophobia. I don't even mind if it has some rock-leaning production. The closest artist I can find to lean this way is Miranda Lambert in her early career as a "cool rebel", but her song usually go on subversion on the cliche for country women rather than actual deconstruction.

edited 13th Feb '18 10:56:10 PM by shatterstar

I had an idea the other day for a band that combines Symphonic Metal with Industrial Metal. There would be two sections: a rythm section and a strings section. The rythm section would be a typical industrial metal band: a lead guitar, rythm guitar, bass guitar, drums, and keyboard(s)/synthesizer(s). The strings section would also be a typical one: violins I and II, a viola, cello, and double bass. There would also be two singers: one male and one female. The male would sing like Till Lindemann, the female like Christine Lorentzen. Some songs would try to bring the two sub-genres together while others would show them clashing.

Perhaps there could also be a horn section: a saxophone, trumpet, and trombone.