System of a Down Nu Metal Sh*te or Armenian Rock Heroes

I agree, White Pony is a class album and have you heard Shimmy on SOAD Toxicity ?, it has hard thrash then middle eastern sounds followed by this quirky jazz thing. Mental!.

Best (high profile) American rock/metal bands of the moment: System Of A Down, Tool, The Deftones. Everyone else is unnecessary.

There are many creative bands in the US underground..away from MTV and playlist radio.. Cave In, Isis, Maudlin of the Well, Dillinger Escape Plan, Drowningman, Narcissus, Snapcase, Taken, Converge, Candiria, Zao, Poison The Well and the mighty soon to be gone.. Botch.

Kris: I cannot go there with you on Slipknot. I don't really know why, because in theory I should love them. Whenever I hear one of their songs, though, I change the channel as quickly as I can. *shrug*

" There are many creative bands in the US underground..away from MTV and playlist radio.. Cave In, Isis, Maudlin of the Well, Dillinger Escape Plan, Drowningman, Narcissus, Snapcase, Taken, Converge, Candiria, Zao, Poison The Well and the mighty soon to be gone.. Botch. "

Are there some good compilations of this stuff?

G

Um, have you ever heard Puddle of Mudd?

You might want to try out the Bad Music For Bad People compilation - it features folks like Isis and Converge, along w/ other heavy New England shenanigans, from all walks of punk- rock / metal life. Other than that, you should probably check out the Hydrahead, Relapse and Escape Artist labels for info (and sound clips).

If you're even remotely interested in this stuff, you can't go wrong with The Dillinger Escape Plan's _Calculating Infinity_, Isis' _Celestial_, Converge's _Jane Doe_, or Neurosis' _Enemy of the Sun_. (How'd DJ Martian miss NEUROSIS? They're old school, sure, but, geez.) (Dot-com the band names for even more info, IF you have a Shockwave-compliant PC.)

PS - Tom, Maura is OTM re: System of a Down, and not in the bad way. (I'm not sure if they're as, ahem, GOOD as Andrew WK, though.)

PPS - Mr. Finney did a Nickelback / System / Incubus grouping on his website a wee while ago. I think Pete is the FT/NYLPM offender.

Lambgoat.com is an excellent website to keep uptodate with the creative spectrum of the rock US underground .. noisecore/ metalcore/ experi-Metal.

I like the abruptness of "Chop Suey", and the stop-start element.

Link, he come to town Come to save the Princess Zelda Ganon took her away Now the children don't play But they will when link saves the day Hallelujah!

Now Link, fill up your hearts So you can shoot your sword with power And when you're feeling all down The fairy will come around So you'll be brave in your decisive hour

Now Link has saved the day Put Ganon in his grave So now Zelda is free And now our hero shall be Link! I think your name shall go down into history.

As for Puddle of Mudd, very 90's and as for the lyrics "I love the way you smack my ass" hmmm just can' get on with that somwhow..

They still sound a bit silly to me, but I'm told they are v serious indeed. which is even funnier.

"Time signatures" can be a hindrance as much as a boon (cf. Soundgarden, who probably would've been served better if they just stuck to 4/4 times, those tricky bastards). Non-4/4 sigs mixed with METALCORE moves (that heavy, terse distortion; double-time drumming; bowel-loosening screams) is, in a world of turgid, straight-forward, thunk-thunk-thunk stuff, startling. It stands out. This isn't too different from the soft / LOUD "dynamics" Nirvana et. al. brought to alt.rock in the 90s - it might seem gimmicky (cf. early Mogwai), but in the hands of the right folks, any gimmick sounds good.

Really, SOAD has a lot of "gimmicks" (the careening vocal acrobatics, the occasional European folk music nod, etc.), but they're not heavily abused and implemented simply for the sake of the gimmick.

Also, they're fun to listen to. The first song on their album is about the US prison system (and inequalities therein). Where a group like Rage would badger listeners with the injustices of it all, SOAD has a little wink-wink nudge-nudge good time with it all - this all reaches a peak when a statistic is spit out and punctuated with a mighty hardcore-esque yawp. The Minuteman ref. made earlier is right on - just as Watt & D. Boon offered their socialist rhetoric in rapid- fire fun funky fashion, SOAD tempers the cloying aspects of their political ramblings in scatter-brained metallic tunes.

BTW, "Toxicity" is a bit much, and I'm really surprised it's a single, as it's probably the dullest song on the album (and much duller outside the album's context).

some good points made about why they're fun as hell to listen to, and why they're not exactly great. i agree that time signature toying is overrated (although i take issue with the Soundgarden nod; i think they mostly made really good, understated use of it), it appeals to me as a drummer, and as someone who loves to be frequently confused and disoriented by music. ach, if i wasn't about to leave for a week i'd start a time signatures thread...someone remind me when i get back, or wait til then to start one, plz.

search: the last 30 seconds of "Soil", which make my jaw drop in disbelief every time..i'd laugh if it didn't rock me so damn hard. i'm pretty sure that someday soon that track is going to be the demise of the speakers on my boombox.

And then they go and Hype the Strokes for weeks on end ...!!! work that out!!.

(Dot-com the band names for even more info, IF you have a Shockwave-compliant PC.)

Heroes I'd say. Great new interview with Serj here:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/system-of-a-down-serj-tankian-armenian-genocide-new-album-20150108

https://systemofadown.bandcamp.com

We as System Of A Down have just released new music for the first time in 15 years. The time to do this is now, as together, the four of us have something extremely important to say as a unified voice. These two songs, “Protect The Land” and “Genocidal Humanoidz” both speak of a dire and serious war being perpetrated upon our cultural homelands of Artsakh and Armenia.

We’re proud to share these songs with you and hope you enjoy listening to them. Further, we encourage you to read on to learn more about their origins and once you do, hope you are inspired to speak out about the horrific injustices and human rights violations occurring there now. Most importantly and urgently, we humbly implore you to donate, in sums small or large to help those adversely affected with what are ever growing accounts of crimes against humanity.

In turn, you will receive downloads of these two new songs and the feeling that you’re truly making a difference. These funds will be used to provide crucial and desperately needed aid and basic supplies for those affected by these hideous acts.