DaN wrote:Me listening to HITT MAN for the first time:
...lol??
Ha ha, you're getting predictable
Just my usual pet peeve, oh so well played and talented "Classic US Metal" but with songs that go in one ear out yer mother. Maybe I'll give them one more try before April '09.
Last edited by DaN on Sat Aug 02, 2008 11:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
I like them to an extent. It's the 'not emotionally heavy' thing that makes them a bit like ear candy to me. But I *will* play these things all in a row now to OBSERVE THE EFFECTS FOR THE BENEFIT OF SCIENCE!
Us metal covers many different moods, don't try it unless you're in a clean/lyrical/high-pitched vocals power metal state! There are times when i want to listen to more aggressive stuff and these bands don't do much at that moment, it's a critical point to identify the mood you're in each time and listen to the stuff that fits with that mood. That goes for every other genre of course.
Good against Evil, Evil sure to win
"It really didn't matter if they liked it or not, i was going to give it to them straight down their throats" -John Stewart
Seriously, this is a great point: I can't really listen to anything that doesn't have CRYSTAL-CLEAR vocals anymore...no, I'm not prejudiced or sth, but I can't find quality in brutal vox for example...after all, I think it's a matter of taste...
Black signs on my monitor, great bitching and fake words, Avenger is here, the craziest "modest" of all modsss...FTOU!!
Oh don't worry, I totally am in the right mood! Sidelines commentating as I go, join in if you want!!
I won't be saying anything you haven't thought about before here, just random impressions as The Warning plays out. This band had class. This was back in 1984, a golden year for HM. The Hittmens and the Lethals and the Omega Points came from 1988-91 and wow, they didn't really improve on a 5-year-old formula much! The music is very Iron Maidenish (the end guitar bit before the dynamic shift with the vocal of En Force is like, total Iron Maiden tribute) and DeGarmo certainly hasn't started to show what he could do yet as a lead guitarist and hook-maker (not to say his "all hooks, all the time!" approach to Operation Mindcrime makes that record significant for me. It just makes it extremely approachable). The record starts to come into its own as it goes, from the more relatively safe tracks in the beginning and then classic tracks like "Take Hold of the Flame" and "Roads to Madness" later on. The only constant on this whole album is of course the performance of Geoff Tate. Even on throwaway tracks like "Deliverance" (Judas Priest typical 3-minute rocker with stupid Turbo keyboard hit transformed by Tate!) are made at worst bearable by his power, certainty and range. I'd have loved to have seen them live at that era, just to get my face melted off by him hitting a high note. Hell I'd do with Tate just singing me what he had for breakfast or something, his voice destroys. But technicality is not all there is here. It's a trend to pick our favorite US Metal obscure singer and say how "he destroys Tate". I've heard such talk about Tim Lachman from Gargoyle, about Midnight, about Steve Benito from Heir Apparent but listening to this I can only say: nobody, NOBODY touches Tate on his peak (well, perhaps Midnight on "Heart of Steel", but it's an exception!). It's not just the range. It's the ETHOS the man extrudes, it's a belief. We've discussed this before but for all his range Benito was an egomaniac showman first. A high note sang crystal can make me shit myself too like any lover of US Metal, and I *will* project my own hopes and desires into the banshee scream, but let's face it: Tate was more than our vessel, he was also Tate. His performance forced you to include him in your escapism, to see his point of view. Is there any greater challenge for a HM front-man? That's the thing, there's so so so much US Metal that sings songs about being yourself, being free, not letting society kick you down, believing in yourself, so on. It became a huge clichι, but Queensryche on a good day put me under the spell and for the better.
That being said, N M 156 is not a good day for them. I guess this LP could be snipped down to EP size to cut out all the songs that aren't as good. Perhaps it would make a killer LP along with the Queensryche EP!! Then again I say something similar about how the best parts of Nightfall and Ancient Dreams maybe would make an 9/10 release but now neither record on its own is more than a 7 for me and people want to eat my throat for it! It's not my fault HM taught me to have no mercy (NO MERCY NO MERCY) for sub-par material! I never particularly liked "Child of Fire" but what an expressive performance by Tate. I don't think there were a lot of singers in 1984 trying out such an emotive range in their Maiden-worshipping songs.
Queensryche really did much better on their next record for me. Sure there's filler there too, but the good songs are better there. Tate is just perfect on both records though. But there's "Roads to Madness" in here! But the production is weak, I am realizing. That awesome opening doomy riff, it needed to CRUSH, but the guitars sound so far away, only the drums and Tate punch through (well Tate's voice could punch through a 3 feet thick cement wall). I guess this 'trying to make it big' mixing by some moron in the mid-80's?
Bah, I'm blabbing! I felt like it, heh. The Warning is done, it's all downhill from now on... with... Hittman!!!!!11111 hm actually compared to the music in The Warning I guess Hittman isn't a big step down as it is a step sideways. I think I'll prefer the Lethal these days, it's been a while since I listened to the Queensryche Byproduct Line for real. We shall see. The worst thing is that I am starting to feel the urge to put Veto - Carthago on instead! It's also lightweight, but it's so much more playful with the arrangements and the solos and shit. Then again alright, Lethal will set me straight when it comes to solos. We don't talk enough about what an awesome record Carthago is! Veto appreciation thread!!
Ion Britton, Glen and John are not brutal, if you can't hear the obvious this is not my fault...they might be raw, or"primitive" if you want but NOT brutal, and you know that I'm right..
Black signs on my monitor, great bitching and fake words, Avenger is here, the craziest "modest" of all modsss...FTOU!!
Helm's killer rant on "Warning", one of the greatest US Metal albums of all time (Hitt-Man Schmitt-Man..) reminded me about the subject of maybe starting a review-section on the forum, open for all who's eager'n'willin'..
Gosh this is kinda worse than I remembered it. First of all, god damn it 80's record producers, this isn't how you mix drums! Well that's a wrong point to start complaining about this record. The 'Dead on Arrival' that everybody loves, is it just me or didn't Grim Reaper also do a song named like this that also hilariously (though completely by accident I'm sure) has a similar vocal melody in the chorus. There's only one big difference: This Dirk Kennedy is no Steve Grimmett. Not to say that Grim Reaper are full of awesome all the time, but good god, Grimmett is one of the best there ever were and he's not... copying Tate. It's a good song but again I am not convinced, it's lightweight and the band doesn't come off as... muscular as this sort of music should be I think. And yeah right after there's "Will You Be There" which I remember not being able to stand in the past and this hasn't changed. Sugary aaaahh aaaahhs in the chorus and a fucking REVERB-GATE COMBO ON THE SNARE, BON JOVI STYLE ARRRRGGHHH. Skipped. Oh Veto, I start to long for thee.
"Breakout" is another total Queensryche worship song. God-damn it. Also this Dirk dude doesn't hit the high notes full-voiced, which is a sorta odd thing to complain about normally, but hey, if you wanna play in the Queensryche ballpark... Fuck you gated reverb on snare: the return in the middle of the track too.
"Backstreet Rebels" all I can hear is a gated reverb snare now. I am trying to push it to the back of my mind but it's not working. It's the same as with the original No Exit mix (on CD, no idea about how the original vinyl sounds, but I bet the reverb-gate-snare is there too) that made it so difficult for me to enjoy that record for years. I kept listening to songs off of that album from live bootlegs and Still Life disk II just to avoid the gated echo on that snare, damn it. How come I didn't remember Hittman suffering from 80s Snare(tm) I don't know, but it's really distracting me now. And this song sucks. Skipped on solo.
"Caught in the Crossfire". Hah, oh man the drummer started playing his double-kicks and it really shows how botched the drum production is here. I'll shut up about the drums though because this is a huge step up from the last two songs. Caught in the crossfire, you're trapped on the insiiiide, Caught in the crossfiiiiire! Well, alright! If the world was fair this would be the 'pop music' (but then again if the world was fair we probably wouldn't be metalheads!).
Holy fuck, "Secret Agent Man" you're awful. Am I missing something here, is this a cover of some 60's track or something? Thou art skipped. "Behind the Lines". Gated Reverb. Gated Reverb. I have to cleanse the palate. "Stand the Test of Time" no you didn't I'm sory Hittman I am sorry, I need Veto, I crave Veto!!
BUT I WILL SOLDIER ON. FOR SCIENCE!
also: DaN good luck if you go with open reviews though personally I like to go to the Corroseum website to read your opinions only, because I am not so much searching for records to download or buy as I am trying to piece together a coherent imagining of a reviewer's taste as an end in itself (call me weird but that sort of humanity in getting to know someone by proxy of what they enjoy in art is almost as important to me as finding out cool new music to enjoy myself) so I wouldn't see the point of having other voices there to confuse things, no matter how good the reviews would be. I write a lot of HM reviews (in Greek mostly, though some pieces are translated) and the rants you see above is not how I like to do them at all also. The rants are fun if you feel like them and the people that read them know you - know the music you're ranting about but not much more. A potent HM review has to do much more than that for me, it has to tackle the actual particulars of the vision and its execution.
