Meshuggah - The Violent Sleep of Reason

  On 9/20/2016 at 10:53 PM, keanu reeves said:

so i know next to nothing about this band or genre but can someone recommend "minimalist" metal kind of like this? maybe with less emphasis on vocals. i really like what i'm hearing but i'm having a lot of difficulty moving beyond the vocals.

Sol Niger Within maybe? It's a Meshuggah spin-off but the vocals might still throw you off

  On 9/20/2016 at 11:10 PM, ThatSpanishGuy said:

 

  On 9/20/2016 at 10:53 PM, keanu reeves said:

so i know next to nothing about this band or genre but can someone recommend "minimalist" metal kind of like this? maybe with less emphasis on vocals. i really like what i'm hearing but i'm having a lot of difficulty moving beyond the vocals.

Sol Niger Within maybe? It's a Meshuggah spin-off but the vocals might still throw you off

Not exactly minimalist, though. :)

  On 9/20/2016 at 11:13 PM, psn said:

 

  On 9/20/2016 at 11:10 PM, ThatSpanishGuy said:

 

  On 9/20/2016 at 10:53 PM, keanu reeves said:

so i know next to nothing about this band or genre but can someone recommend "minimalist" metal kind of like this? maybe with less emphasis on vocals. i really like what i'm hearing but i'm having a lot of difficulty moving beyond the vocals.

Sol Niger Within maybe? It's a Meshuggah spin-off but the vocals might still throw you off

Not exactly minimalist, though. :)

 

haha yeah I thought of that, but he said ""minimalist" metal kind of like this", which I'm guessing does not refer to the same-chord-for-an-hour kind of minimalism (not dissing drone/doom here, just being descriptive) but to something else. In any case, can't go wrong with Sol Niger Within

It's not quite metal I know but Shellac?

  On 9/20/2016 at 11:32 PM, ThatSpanishGuy said:

 

  On 9/20/2016 at 11:13 PM, psn said:

 

  On 9/20/2016 at 11:10 PM, ThatSpanishGuy said:

 

  On 9/20/2016 at 10:53 PM, keanu reeves said:

so i know next to nothing about this band or genre but can someone recommend "minimalist" metal kind of like this? maybe with less emphasis on vocals. i really like what i'm hearing but i'm having a lot of difficulty moving beyond the vocals.

Sol Niger Within maybe? It's a Meshuggah spin-off but the vocals might still throw you off

Not exactly minimalist, though. :)

 

 

haha yeah I thought of that, but he said ""minimalist" metal kind of like this", which I'm guessing does not refer to the same-chord-for-an-hour kind of minimalism (not dissing drone/doom here, just being descriptive) but to something else. In any case, can't go wrong with Sol Niger Within

 

 Oh no, please, diss away.

  On 9/20/2016 at 11:41 PM, hello spiral said:

It's not quite metal I know but Shellac?

i like them.

i'm trying to step away from any kind of alt/post punk and explore metal a bit more, but i don't like black metal at all and i generally hate death metal as well. this kind of technical almost psychedelic stuff is what i'm after, maybe "minimalist" is the wrong word because of its association with composers and an actual genre. i think there may have been a thread asking for this already...

  On 9/20/2016 at 11:41 PM, hello spiral said:

It's not quite metal I know but Shellac?

Yeah!

And two first Helmet albums.

  On 9/21/2016 at 12:18 AM, keanu reeves said:

 

  On 9/20/2016 at 11:41 PM, hello spiral said:

It's not quite metal I know but Shellac?

 

i like them.

 

i'm trying to step away from any kind of alt/post punk and explore metal a bit more, but i don't like black metal at all and i generally hate death metal as well. this kind of technical almost psychedelic stuff is what i'm after, maybe "minimalist" is the wrong word because of its association with composers and an actual genre. i think there may have been a thread asking for this already...

 

hmm, maybe try some of the Meshuggah-inspired "djent" bands like Tesseract, Periphery, Textures? Some of them can get a bit emo sounding sometimes but the emo stuff is interspersed with some incredibly technical playing. 

The buildup and soaring emo chorus section in this song is probably one of the best things I've heard in modern metal:

Textures are pretty proggy, lots of influences to spot but some really great riffs and arrangements:

Periphery take the Meshuggah influence and get super ridiculous with the prog arrangements:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nze16zyVkDY

Probably the opposite of minimalist though lol.. and the vocals are prominent in all three bands I mentioned (Tesseract don't use screaming very often though, which may be a positive point if you're not into that). I went on a quest to find super minimalist/repetitive metal a couple of years ago but didn't find much. I'm not big into stoner/doom metal because 90% of it lazily relies on the same slowed down kyuss/sabbath riffs without any innovation or anything fast. I'm wondering, where's all of the kraut metal?!

fake edit: you might enjoy stuff like Isis, Neurosis etc as well. They pair post-rock style prettiness with crushing riffs quite nicely. That's getting away from Meshuggah influence a little but post-metal is full of psychedelic moments :D

The last couple of minutes of this song are super pretty, but still intense:

Meshuggah are pretty unique and least cheesy (or not cheesy at all) in the "djent" genre. They are the only "djent" band I know that IMO doesn't overproduce/overplay their stuff which I cannot say about the examples of bands mentioned above. Meshuggah understand that the song and atmosphere are more important than technical skills.

oh yeah I should have added a disclaimer that I fkn love super polished metal :P

The technical skill isn't unnecessary though imo. It's not just mindless malmsteen-esque noodling; everything is still contributing to the melodic content of the song.

My main problem with those bands is that they are, IMHO, kitschy and cold. I don't trust most of their emotions. It's like with operas. Technically impressive, yet kitschy and so fake-emotional and overdone it is paradoxically totally cold and empty in the end.

I adore technically competent musicians (and Meshuggah most definitely are) but I need honest emotions first and skills second (to support it). Also, with most overly-prog metal bands... they simply don't know good sound design and mixing. Cheap synths and FX, preset-based trigger-heavy drums, perfectly quantized, no micro-dynamics etc. They all sound very samey to me because of that. Meshuggah on the other hand have their distinctive sound that nobody seem to be able to copy-cat very well and they understand what mixingm sound-design and band chemistry do to music. They also developed their style slowly and naturally which is often an opposite case with those young prog/djent-metal bands IMO.

I have been recently checking this band called Karnivool. Earlier albums are overproduced and super-clean together with overly affected vocals so I didn't enjoy it. But then I heard their latest (Asymmetry) and they changed their producer and delivered much more sincere and raw sounding record which I enjoyed quite a lot ("We Are" is an amazing song with super-raw sounding drums and loud cymbals which I love).

So yeah, just my 2 cents.

I see your point, for sure, especially with bands like Tesseract and Periphery, where it sounds like it was just programmed with DFH or something like that.. (I think the early stuff was). However I don't think bands like Textures can be lumped in with that; their music is definitely very expressive and naturally dynamic, especially their latest album.

Karnivool are great! I like their early stuff as well; I went to one of their early gigs just before they got big and they were impressive for a bunch of teenagers.. If you like them you might be interested in Dead Letter Circus as well, check out their album "The Catalyst Fire".

  On 9/21/2016 at 3:54 AM, modey said:

 

  On 9/21/2016 at 12:18 AM, keanu reeves said:

 

  On 9/20/2016 at 11:41 PM, hello spiral said:

It's not quite metal I know but Shellac?

 

i like them.

 

i'm trying to step away from any kind of alt/post punk and explore metal a bit more, but i don't like black metal at all and i generally hate death metal as well. this kind of technical almost psychedelic stuff is what i'm after, maybe "minimalist" is the wrong word because of its association with composers and an actual genre. i think there may have been a thread asking for this already...

 

hmm, maybe try some of the Meshuggah-inspired "djent" bands like Tesseract, Periphery, Textures? Some of them can get a bit emo sounding sometimes but the emo stuff is interspersed with some incredibly technical playing. 

 

The buildup and soaring emo chorus section in this song is probably one of the best things I've heard in modern metal:

 

Textures are pretty proggy, lots of influences to spot but some really great riffs and arrangements:

 

Periphery take the Meshuggah influence and get super ridiculous with the prog arrangements:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nze16zyVkDY

 

Probably the opposite of minimalist though lol.. and the vocals are prominent in all three bands I mentioned (Tesseract don't use screaming very often though, which may be a positive point if you're not into that). I went on a quest to find super minimalist/repetitive metal a couple of years ago but didn't find much. I'm not big into stoner/doom metal because 90% of it lazily relies on the same slowed down kyuss/sabbath riffs without any innovation or anything fast. I'm wondering, where's all of the kraut metal?!

 

 

fake edit: you might enjoy stuff like Isis, Neurosis etc as well. They pair post-rock style prettiness with crushing riffs quite nicely. That's getting away from Meshuggah influence a little but post-metal is full of psychedelic moments :D

 

The last couple of minutes of this song are super pretty, but still intense:

 

hmmm, yeah i can't deal with those first three at all flol. i know isis, it's ok stuff. neurosis are pretty good too. have to figure out what i'm looking for here, i think i want something that sounds "raw" but is also really technically proficient but also indebted in some way to a minimalist approach to composition, like is there a steve reich of metal? lol

  On 9/21/2016 at 6:21 AM, modey said:

I see your point, for sure, especially with bands like Tesseract and Periphery, where it sounds like it was just programmed with DFH or something like that.. (I think the early stuff was). However I don't think bands like Textures can be lumped in with that; their music is definitely very expressive and naturally dynamic, especially their latest album.

 

 

Karnivool are great! I like their early stuff as well; I went to one of their early gigs just before they got big and they were impressive for a bunch of teenagers.. If you like them you might be interested in Dead Letter Circus as well, check out their album "The Catalyst Fire".

Thanks, mate. Will check it.

  On 9/21/2016 at 6:54 AM, keanu reeves said:

steve reich of metal? lol

 

that's pretty much exactly what I was looking for haha. I ended up just doing it myself

umm, maybe you might like some elements of these

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNotnzziVmg

but even they're pretty proggy.. Generally my search was pretty fruitless, which is strange because I would've thought that most things have already been done. I did a quick google search just now and found recommendations for bands like Sunn O))), Earth etc but nothing fast or Reich-inspired.

At least there should be some kraut-metal bands out there or something?!

  On 9/21/2016 at 6:54 AM, keanu reeves said:

is there a steve reich of metal? lol

 

steve reich should just enter the metal scene and put all these 'steve reich of metals' to shame. show them how it's really done. 

lol that orthrelm album kinda annoys me because it's like tiny little snippits of solos and almost no low-end guitar playing whatsoever.. it's SO CLOSE to what I want though which is why I find it annoying

  On 9/21/2016 at 7:42 AM, bitroast said:

steve reich should just enter the metal scene and put all these 'steve reich of metals' to shame. show them how it's really done. 

ha, definitely

but in reality he'll probably do it like 2x5, which was 20 years after post-rock and mathrock became a thing, and somewhat inferior in comparison

I <3 Mick Barr (and I really think he is the best example of minimalism/modernism in metal)

Tesseract are about the only metal band you'll find doing those heavy riffs without the screamy vocals. That said, Anup Sastry makes some amazing instrumental groove orientated djent:

[bandcamp]4247122862[/bandcamp]

Some people get really mad about Anup because the guitars are electronic, not real, but it sounds phenomenal regardless. Hell, a bunch of the Meshuggah albums have fake drums on them and those are still great.

Speaking of:

[youtubehd]qfOddwK7x3E[/youtubehd]

  On 9/21/2016 at 7:59 PM, Bechuga said:

Hell, a bunch of the Meshuggah albums have fake drums on them

One album. :)

  On 9/21/2016 at 7:59 PM, Bechuga said:

Some people get really mad about Anup because the guitars are electronic, not real, but it sounds phenomenal regardless. 

yeah wow, that sounds really good.. Some of the demos I've been working on lately have been using sampled guitars, only because it's quicker to write stuff like that in Renoise than sit there recording endless takes of real guitar. I'll re-record them later but this Anup stuff is making me think I need to re-make my metal guitar sample pack and not feel ashamed of using it in my tracks.. IDM metal ftw

  On 9/21/2016 at 6:54 AM, keanu reeves said:

like is there a steve reich of metal? lol

  On 9/21/2016 at 7:47 AM, hello spiral said:

I <3 Mick Barr (and I really think he is the best example of minimalism/modernism in metal)

 

 

 

quality post. personal fav (release not particular track):

ace bloke, too.

  On 9/20/2016 at 5:44 PM, psn said:

A little less rehash going on in this song than in the first preview. Digging the way the track takes a cool departure after a couple of verses!

 

it's better than the first alright. tight atmo.

  On 9/20/2016 at 11:04 PM, psn said:

 

  On 9/20/2016 at 10:53 PM, keanu reeves said:

so i know next to nothing about this band or genre but can someone recommend "minimalist" metal kind of like this? maybe with less emphasis on vocals. i really like what i'm hearing but i'm having a lot of difficulty moving beyond the vocals.

Two classics:

Sleep - Dopesmoker

Confessor - Condemned

confessor = good choice. some of the best vocals ever, too. ;)