That Metal Thread Hasbro issues & the future of DnD

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CRKrueger said:
If for some reason I could no longer play Mythras, I'd go into Harn, Rolemaster, WFRP, Talislanta/Arcanum, etc. Then there's the OSR/Adjacent. Hell, my group still wants me someday to run Dragon Age.

I could easily spend the rest of my life without WotC affecting me in the slightest.
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That's certainly the case for me as well, but it's definitely not the case for the industry as a whole.
 
CRKrueger said:
If for some reason I could no longer play Mythras, I'd go into Harn, Rolemaster, WFRP, Talislanta/Arcanum, etc. Then there's the OSR/Adjacent. Hell, my group still wants me someday to run Dragon Age.

I could easily spend the rest of my life without WotC affecting me in the slightest.
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Wish I could. Local gaming scene here is very... sorry, I just can't come up with anything as accurate but less offensive than "corporate whore-ish". Since a SR game some 20+ years ago now I haven't gotten to play anything but wotc D&D or a straight up knockoff. I run about a quarter or 2/5th of the campaigns and none of those have been D&D since... a good 15+ years I think. But get to play? Nada.

They all suck down whatever the current wotc offering is (ok, except one pazio game, once) without... without... I mean, they complain about the shoddy settings, sloppy rule bits, shit errata, meh modules, and all that. But they can't seem to ever get past "it has the wotc and d&d logos so i must buy it" to ever actually look at other games.

For the music I'm still waiting for the bagpipe klesmer gregorian chant death metal band spam songs I was promised after that night of D&D drinking games.
 
The 2010's were definitely my reconnecting phase with metal.

What started it was reading an article by James Raggi on drawing inspiration from different genres of metal album covers (I can't find the article, sadly). It made me curious and so I checked out Doom Metal like Candlemass.

One thing led to another and I discovered My Dying Bride, Draconian, Tristania and the Gathering.

Finally a friend of mine from High School (one of the guys who was my own Eddie from Stranger Things) gave me a list of bands to check out. One of them was Behemoth's The Satanist. The slippery slope was steep from then on (Belphegor, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Watain...). Put Crade of Filth back on (hadn't listened to that since the late 90s when some goth girls exposed me to their decadent crazyness).

I've mellowed out a bit since then, but still put on Cradle's Funeral in Carpathia once in a while. I love that fucking song for some reason.
 
Gringnr said:
At 36:33 of that video, there is a blast beat, I shit you not.
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This really attracted my curiosity. I suck at a drums and no virtually nothing about them (beyond what sounds I like and what I used to ask my drummer to do), so maybe someone who knows about drums and plays them can weigh in. My first thought when I saw the post was 'that's not possible' because double bass pedals weren't invented yet. But I looked it up and they were invented in 1968 even though they didn't come into heavy use till the 80s. I couldn't find whether they used one or not, but listening it doesn't sound he is using double bass on the album. So I thought, okay not a blast beat. Then I realized I wasn't sure I even knew what the definition of a blast beat was. I know what they sound like, everyone knows a blast beat section when they hear it in death metal. But I realized I might not actually know the technical definition. So I looked it up.

There are probably better sources but this is the first paragraph of the wikipedia page:

A blast beat is a type of drum beat that originated in hardcore punk and grindcore, and is often associated with certain styles of extreme metal, namely black metal and death metal,[2] and occasionally in metalcore. In Adam MacGregor's definition, "the blast-beat generally comprises a repeated, sixteenth-note figure played at a very fast tempo, and divided uniformly among the bass drum, snare, and ride, crash, or hi-hat cymbal."[2] Blast beats have been described by PopMatters contributor Whitney Strub as, "maniacal percussive explosions, less about rhythm per se than sheer sonic violence".[3]

"The 'original' or traditional blastbeat is a single-stroke roll played between your cymbal and snare, with your kick playing simultaneously with every cymbal hit."[1]

Napalm Death is said to have coined the term,[4] though this style of drumming had been used by others for its characteristically chaotic sound.
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Apparently blast beats don't require double bass (it is just the type of blast beat I saw my drummer play most because of the kind of music we were into). I believe, based on the wikipedia article, that what I had in mind is a bomb blast beat. Also I thought blast beats had to be all 32nd notes, but it looks like 16th notes can work too. Very possible I am wrong about the 16th notes as I am not great at counting time signatures. Unfortunately I don't know the technical aspects of drumming enough to know whether this actually meets the requirement of being a blast beat as stated above. To my ear it does sound like 16th notes and it sounds like he is riding the kick, snare and cymbal (not sure what is meant by 'single stroke roll' though and if this meets that). It does sound blast beat like to me though.

Also since it is a good opportunity to talk basic music, this is a pretty good video explaining what a 16th note is:

On the subject of blast beats, they are actually one of the things I never liked about death metal (though I do realize for a lot of people they are a defining aspect of the genre). I think the reason why is they always feel like they are sucking the power out of the guitar tremolo to me. And they I feel like it sounds faster and heavier when the drumming is more varied. But I don't think most people have that reaction to them.
 
I also think that D&D embracing computer-aided/online play is a two-edged sword. It can certainly bring people together (most of my groups are long distance), but screens are TTRPGs' biggest competitor for attention. It's like Burger King sending people to McDonalds, IMO.
 
RunningLaser said:
Carnival Bizzare is a great Cathedral album.
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After The Ethereal Mirror came out, I was a little disspointed in the change of direction and thought I might not buy the next album. In hindsight the Ethereal Mirror is a good album, I just had very different expectations after Forest Equilibrium and the Soul Sacrifice EP (I loved the song Autumn Twilight but I really should have been able to see the funkier direction coming because Soul Sacrifice gives strong indications of that). But I picked up Carnival Bizarre when it came out and ended up playing it to death. It was not Forest Equilibrium but either I really liked it (not sure if that was because I come around more to their changes or if Carnival Bizarre felt more in line with their previous work to me). I haven't heard Carnival Bizarre in a while though.

Autumn Twilight (from the Soul Sacrifice EP):
 
CRKrueger said:
I’ve always loved metal, but my descent into the myriad sub-genres has always been halted by the fact that I just don’t enjoy the growling.
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For me, it depends on if it's done well. There's an art to it, though many might say not, and a way to do it well (and healthily) vs not.
 
I love Megadeth with the best of ‘em but I’d rather listen to my beloved Van Halen any day. Nobody had better tone than Eddie.
 
CRKrueger said:
I’ve always loved metal, but my descent into the myriad sub-genres has always been halted by the fact that I just don’t enjoy the growling.
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That is totally fair I think. I generally prefer cleaner, but I can enjoy certain growls and can often look past vocals if the guitar is there. It definitely made a difference for me with a band like Solitude Aeturnus. When I bought the album, it looked like it might just be a death metal album based on the cover and song titles. But the vocals were a big part of what made it stand out to me.
 
Heh, yeah, them and Tankard:


German neo-thrash band Space Chaser scratches some of that same itch:
 
Raised by Owls are probably their modern descendents.

 
Endless Flight said:
I love Megadeth with the best of ‘em but I’d rather listen to my beloved Van Halen any day. Nobody had better tone than Eddie.
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I have to admit to having a little difficulty getting deep into Van Halen (no real criticism of them, I just don't connect as much to the sound as I would like to), but he is indeed a bright red line dividing the history of guitar. There is guitar before Van Halen and guitar after him. I've always liked eruptions. Pretty much every guitarist had to learn that when I was young. I still use it as a warm up. And he had such tremendous command of his instrument. There are some players who are just so poised when they play, who are clearly getting the sound they want, and have complete control of the strings. Even in a poppier song like Hot For Teacher or the solo from Beat It, you can hear that.

For me Ritchie Blackmore is the player I could listen to all day. Another one of the more poised players.
 
Endless Flight said:
I love Roy Orbison. I actually don’t think anybody sang better. He sounded as good at 50 as he did at 20, which is a rarity in rock ‘n roll.
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In agreement on that one. He had a great voice and wrote songs in a unique way. He is also one of these guys who has cross over appeal with different generations, with people into different styles of music, etc.
 
A No-prize to anyone who can, in a genuine and sustainable manner, further derail this thread from Hasbro then Metal to something entirely different.

You will be known forever as a Pub Legend.
 
PolarBlues said:
A No-prize to anyone who can, in a genuine and sustainable manner, further derail this thread from Hasbro then Metal to something entirely different.

You will be known forever as a Pub Legend.
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I don't know if there is much chance of derailing this, metal is a pretty firm derail topic. But we could try some 90s Horror highlights:
 
BedrockBrendan said:
I don't know if there is much chance of derailing this, metal is a pretty firm derail topic.
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This metal derail isn't just solid, it is epic. Which is why any further subversion would be the stuff of legend!

Not that I have anything against people talking about heavy metal or Hasbro. That's cool too.
 
Well, a new action movie is coming from Vietnam. Furies. Starring and directed by Veronica Ngo, who starred in Furie, which this is a sequel to. Furie was ass-kicking greatness, directed by Le-Van Kiet, who made his western directorial debut with The Princess, which also featured Veronica Ngo.
 
I recently watched a movie called The Furies. It was sort of a cross between Hunger Games and Hostel. It helped that I went in blind, with no expectations, no idea where it would go.
 
Here's the trailer to the first Furie flick: lookit this action!
 
Paul Anka did a similar album, although that was more generic "rock" than specifically metal.

 
Didn't he record Van Halen's Jump as swing tune? It kinda worked.
 
CRKrueger said:
I’ve always loved metal, but my descent into the myriad sub-genres has always been halted by the fact that I just don’t enjoy the growling.
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Some really good bands are purely instrumental like Russian Circles and Zombi.



 
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