[Apophis]

not so bad

[Lozek]

Talking about what's currently coming through, then I have to agree that 99.9% of what i hear in the UK sucks. I don't really count Maiden, Carcass or Cradle in that as their quality material is all years in the past.

Reason being, I think we really suffer from being an island out on our own. We have our own little industry happening in this country which is totally insular to everything else, we have magazines that emulate the rest of the UK press by being obsessive about what is 'in' this week, and believe me if you ever meet any of the 'journalists' that work for those rags, they are some of the most pathetic people that have ever existed. With a few exceptions (there are a couple of genuine metal fans amongst them who love what they do) journalists/industry people that I've met are so obsessed with 'Who's doing who/who's not doing who/who's got the coke/who can i hang out with to make me cooler than everyone else', that they seem to forget that they're actually meant to be concentrating on the music.

BFMV are a product of these people, for a long time I've heard various people dropping in 'Oh, I was hanging out with Matt from Bullet the other night' like it's some kind of achievement. In reference to some of my earlier statements, read Dom Lawsons summary of the new BFMV album in Metal Hammer this month. An honest opinion given by a guy who knows his metal inside out & has been doing it for decades.

For this reason, UK bands are so obsessive about what's 'cool' that they seem to totally bypass the fact that they need to inject personality in what they do. I guess it is easier to emulate someone else than explore your own possibilities.

Exceptions to the rule:

Sikth - How unique are they? Do you know anything else that sounds like them (apart from the now numerous Sikth rip-off merchants)? It's a double edged sword though, I know a lot of people that come out with 'I just can't stand that vocalist', but that is the price you pay for doing something inidividual

Skindred - Not a massive massive fan, but is there anyone else that sounds like them? They really have explored that whole metal/reggae/D&B thing and done something totally unique. Plus, Benji is hands down one of the best frontmen around. Ever seen a black man called a whole rally of Hells Angels 'wankers' & get away with it?

Skunk Anansie - Again, not really round anymore, but could those guys write a song or what? They had an amazing talent in Skin as a vocalist. Ace was such a tasty guitar player, totally understated but always played to the song and had a sound that fitted perfectly for every part. Cass was quite experimental in his approach to his bass & the drummer was extremely solid. But they were much more than the sum of their parts.

So, there's the rules. If you come from the UK & want to be good, your name needs to start with S and have a K somewhere close.

[John_Strychnine]

Originally Posted by Lozek

Talking about what's currently coming through, then I have to agree that 99.9% of what i hear in the UK sucks. I don't really count Maiden, Carcass or Cradle in that as their quality material is all years in the past.

Reason being, I think we really suffer from being an island out on our own. We have our own little industry happening in this country which is totally insular to everything else, we have magazines that emulate the rest of the UK press by being obsessive about what is 'in' this week, and believe me if you ever meet any of the 'journalists' that work for those rags, they are some of the most pathetic people that have ever existed. With a few exceptions (there are a couple of genuine metal fans amongst them who love what they do) journalists/industry people that I've met are so obsessed with 'Who's doing who/who's not doing who/who's got the coke/who can i hang out with to make me cooler than everyone else', that they seem to forget that they're actually meant to be concentrating on the music.

BFMV are a product of these people, for a long time I've heard various people dropping in 'Oh, I was hanging out with Matt from Bullet the other night' like it's some kind of achievement. In reference to some of my earlier statements, read Dom Lawsons summary of the new BFMV album in Metal Hammer this month. An honest opinion given by a guy who knows his metal inside out & has been doing it for decades.

For this reason, UK bands are so obsessive about what's 'cool' that they seem to totally bypass the fact that they need to inject personality in what they do. I guess it is easier to emulate someone else than explore your own possibilities.

Exceptions to the rule:

Sikth - How unique are they? Do you know anything else that sounds like them (apart from the now numerous Sikth rip-off merchants)? It's a double edged sword though, I know a lot of people that come out with 'I just can't stand that vocalist', but that is the price you pay for doing something inidividual

Skindred - Not a massive massive fan, but is there anyone else that sounds like them? They really have explored that whole metal/reggae/D&B thing and done something totally unique. Plus, Benji is hands down one of the best frontmen around. Ever seen a black man called a whole rally of Hells Angels 'wankers' & get away with it?

Skunk Anansie - Again, not really round anymore, but could those guys write a song or what? They had an amazing talent in Skin as a vocalist. Ace was such a tasty guitar player, totally understated but always played to the song and had a sound that fitted perfectly for every part. Cass was quite experimental in his approach to his bass & the drummer was extremely solid. But they were much more than the sum of their parts.

So, there's the rules. If you come from the UK & want to be good, your name needs to start with S and have a K somewhere close.

haha this is what i was trying to say.

and after playing gigs with both sikth and Skindred, id say they we're 2 of the best bands that uk has atm.

[DDDorian]

I wasn't trying to suggest that UK metal sucks, just that the whole UK tabloid culture means that this band is fellated by the media at every turn for no real reason. I was given a subscription to Metal Hammer the Xmas before last, and of the six or seven issues I bothered to pick up, THREE of them had this band on the cover, and this was before they'd toured with Maiden or played Download or really done anything other than put out their debut album (aside from get kicked off their US tour for being arrogant bastards). They seemed to be up on this pedestal for the sole reason that they were locals, not because they actually had many fans or people interested in their music. They almost arbitrarily pick the bands they want to be huge and the ones they want to die commercially. I remember they had a huge feature on the fact that Trivium's album had gone silver over there... I mean, SILVER? It's kinda like going in a marathon and winning a 9th place medal or something, isn't it? I don't even pretend to understand the media culture over there

That being said, the UK sampler discs that came with the mags were almost universally awful. I don't doubt that the UK has its fair share of great metal, but you sure as hell won't be hearing about it from any journalists. Oh well.

[Stitch]

If you want a decent sampler you buy Terrorizer for Fear Candy, hands down the best sampler cd out there. Metal Hammer sucks and has done for the longest time, far more concerned with MCR, Thursday and Thrice than real bands. I mean, all the Meshuggah albums since Nothing have gotten tiny little3" articles. Catch 33 got one page. What does that say about their devotion to metal? Its sugar-coated pop-alt now.

[Mastodon]

I'm not a fan of Bullet For My Valentine, but I'd say that this is no more of a rip-off then Between the Buried and Me's song "Selkies: The Endless Obsession" is of King Crimson's "Frame by Frame"

[7 Dying Trees]

Originally Posted by Lozek

So, there's the rules. If you come from the UK & want to be good, your name needs to start with S and have a K somewhere close.

That's us buggerred then isn't it...

[elrrek]

Terrorizer is bawz as well, I cancelled my subscription on that magazine 2 years ago and now only pick it up when it has a decent quantity of articles I want to read and most of those are in the "breaking faces" section or whatever it's called.

On another forum I spend a lot of time on we had a pretty large debate about Terrorizer following the hypocrisy of their writters top 40 for 2007.

In the writers top 40 there were a number of cutting edge and actual forward thinking "metal" / "heavy" releases and a fair number of "big band" names that had released records which most definitely deserved to be recognised. But when you compared this list to the bands that actually get covered in the magazine, there was a distinct lack of those.

Obviously the "writers chart" is not necessarily going to reflect the artist they need to put on the front cover in order to sell magazines but it still stinks. Which is similar in a way to what DDDorian was trying to say.

Great current British Metal bands:
Akercocke (premier league death/black metal)
Anaal Nathrak (bonkers)
Bolt Thrower (stallwarts of the European scene)
Borken Oath (Glasgow metal core)
Caina (experimaental black metal)
Charger (sludgecore masters)
Friday Night Gunfight (Edinburgh tech-metal)
Co-Exist (Glasgow grindcore)
Cathedral (world class doom band)
Jesu ("ambient" metal)
Zillah (Edinburgh tech masters)
NOG (Birmingham 7 or 8 string mentalists)
Mechagodzilla (northern england gurn-core extremists)
Tangaroa (Leeds based 7 string head fuck)
Desalvo (Glasgow based alternative metal destroyers)
Mistress (more Birmingham nutters)

I would provide links but I'm at work - meh.

[Lozek]

Originally Posted by 7 Dying Trees

That's us buggerred then isn't it...

Pretty much.

[Uber Mega]

Originally Posted by DDDorian

Bullet For My Valentine? Plagiarists? How is this even up for discussion? This band rips off Trivium, for christ's sake The only reason anyone even knows who they are is because they're the only marketable band the UK metal scene has so they're pimped to oblivion. Oh well.

BFMV was around, and defined their present sound, long before Trivium even existed

Regardless, I find their music really plastic, clinical and their riffs, leads and lyrics so cliche...in 10 years they've released two albums and not developed their sound one bit, i'm not a fan unfortunately.



The UK has few original/decent metal bands, but our forte is Progressive and Ambient rock: Porcupine Tree, Pure Reason Revolution, Mogwai, Oceansize, Fields, Old Man Gloom, Boards of Canada, Gravenhurst, Anathema...the list could go on for 4 pages.