fraroc

One of the mentalities that some metalheads have that I really just cant wrap my head around is the idea that death growls and screaming is somehow more valid than clean vocals in metal. Theres been a few instances where fans of Amon Amarth have given me a little bit of a bollocking (yes I'm talking British now) because I believe that their music would sound a lot better with a vocals more akin to Bruce Dickinson or James LaBrie or Jeff Scott Soto and Mark Boals. The usual argument is "Oh well if you want clean vocals go listen to Bon Jovi or whatever fake shitty hair metal you like." I think there's something very wrong with that mentality. If a singer to a metal band sings instead of growls, they're "Bon Jovi"? That's why I like Dream Theater and Ghost so much, because they're not afraid to be both heavy and very melodic.

You’ve got issues fella. You make it seem like the ONLY reason anyone dislikes hair metal is because of the appearance of those bands. More often than not it IS the only reason. It clouds people's judgement.

Cinderella never wanted to be totally glam. They were under pressure to dress a certain way as it was the fashion back then. My advice to anyone who hates hair metal is this, why don't you actually listen to the goddamn fuccking music instead of just focusing on how they looked like?

I wouldn't consider songs like Dream Warriors, Turn Up The Radio, and Love Of A Lifetime to be about sex.

To me, Steel Panther kind of treads a fine line between being a tribute to the great arena rock bands of the 1980s (or more colloquially known as "hair metal") and making fun of that genre at the same time. While the melodies of the songs are great and they sound just like they came right out of 1987, the lyrics to pretty much every song is at a Blood On The Dance Floor/Brokencyde level where they sing about nothing except for sex, even their ballads have extremely explicit and immature lyrics. Steel Panther is a great band if you don't take it too seriously. However, not everybody shares the same view. Eddie Trunk (who else?) thinks that Steel Panther is one of the most insulting things towards 80s hard rock to ever come out. Even more insulting than grunge. I don't agree with Eddie when he says that Steel Panther is a giant insult, but I understand how he feels about the whole thing. For example, I believe that Vito Bratta is one of the greatest guitarists that ever lived, and it is a shame that someone as influential as Vito will be forever lumped in with the likes of CC DeVille because of the whole "80s glam metal" label. I'd even go as far as to say that 80s hair metal becoming a joke in the mid 90s completely ruined the career of one of an unsung guitar god.

Michael J Fox is still alive and kicking after dealing with Parkinson's since he was in his late 20s. There might still be hope for Glenn

Btw the reason why I did this poll was because I read on Loudwire something about how Joakim's main influences were Ian Gillan and Bruce Dickinson.

Sabaton doing Highway Star would be kickass.

Nuff said ;)

It did change everyone's perception of what a guitar could do, yes, but as many guitarists that bought into that idea and achieved fame and success copying or extrapolating on EVH, many others found their own way. Let's not forget that arguably the most influential 80s band on the past nearly 20 years of music was pretty much U2, and The Edge most certainly didn't care a bit about what finger tapping or sweep picking was. The Edge doesn't even crack most people's top 100s

To be honest, I dont really hate Steve Hogarth as a singer. They just need to write music that doesn't put you to sleep. (I'm looking at YOU, This Strange Engine)

Okay so I admit there are a lot of great 70s guitarists. But that does not change the fact that the very late 70s and 80s was when all the innovation happened. You can NOT sit there and tell me that Eruption didn't change everything. From the sound of the guitar to the way it was played.

Scholz vs. EVH is a much more interesting question. Boston spawned AOR, VH spawned hair metal. That's a tough one. Scholz for me. if Eddie spawned hair metal i'd love to slap him. like....REALLY BADLY., lol Mick Well, I suppose we can't just blame VH...but like...Eddie was the sole reason anyone and everyone started finger tapping all the time in the 80s, and that did lead to a good bit of the soullessness of so much hair metal. At least two handed tapping, sweep picking, alternate picking and pinch harmonics were things that were developed in the 80s that were drastically different and impressive during that time period. In the 70s, the framework for guitar solos barely changed. And they became boring, pedestrian, and horrifically repetitive. Same old blues scales, same old tencniques, same old bullshit. In 1978, EVH changed all of that with Eruption.

I guess I just don't like 70s guitar solos that much because I'm not a fan of blues. Blues in the 70s to me, was extremely cookie cutter and repetitive. So many songs sounded exactly the same melody-wise and might only have a few differences in lyrics. Of course there are going to be several outliers, like Alex Lifeson, Richie Blackmore, Jimmy Page etc....But for me, it wasn't until EVH came along that guitar solos got revolutionized. He's the one that paved the way and made 80s lead guitar what it was.

I would say they were definitely better in the 80s. In the 80s, you had players like EVH, Randy Rhoads, Jake E. Lee, Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai, Vito Bratta etc. that all had a very unique sound and approach to the guitar. I'm sorry, but in the 70s, a lot of lead guitar sounded very pedestrian and similar to one another. It wasn't until EVH and then Randy Rhoads busted on the scene that guitar players got a boot up the ass that they needed.

So now you're saying I'm now Yosemite Sam on crystal meth?

Personally I don't give a f**k if Sabaton or Lacuna Coil never ever win a Grammy. They're too good for it anyway. Rock isn't dead, it's just too good to be mainstream

♪ Throw away the garbage pail, get a brand new garbage pail ♪ Yeah....this is....good.

Man that title scared the shit of me. If I was true however, then it would have clearly explained why Rush broke up.....

I got to see them 10 times over 35 years, which could have been more, but that's OK. I take great satisfaction from not being like some fanatics, who abandon everything - even their families, and even during the birth of children - just so they can boast about seeing the band 100+ times. Well, sometimes that beggars the question of why these people even had kids to begin with.

No, its NOTHING like a concert getting a theatrical release. Its dopey live musicians performing with a hologram. STUPID And people standing in an audience rocking out to a hologram. STUPID I never said it was evil but masquerading a dead person in hologram form for money is shameful. Yeah well maybe this whole hologram business isn't for you. And he who lives in a glass house shouldn't throw stones. Don't you think it's pretty STUPID to judge things before you try them? You mean like the Tide Pod Challenge? I think some things are stupid enough to be dismissed out of hand. Comparing cutting edge hologram technology VS. something that can actually kill you?

No, its NOTHING like a concert getting a theatrical release. Its dopey live musicians performing with a hologram. STUPID And people standing in an audience rocking out to a hologram. STUPID I never said it was evil but masquerading a dead person in hologram form for money is shameful. Yeah well maybe this whole hologram business isn't for you. And he who lives in a glass house shouldn't throw stones. Don't you think it's pretty STUPID to judge things before you try them?

Do you think it's a fair assessment to say that Mike Portnoy is the Dennis DeYoung of Dream Theater?

I watched that Eddie Trunk clip, Derek seriously sounds like a jilted lover who obsessively talks about how much of a piece of shit their ex is. It's a shame because he's one of my favorite keyboardists.

To be honest, part of me feels kind of glad that they bowed out when they were somewhat healthy....I would have loved to see Rush live a second time, but I think that them retiring is a less painful than say, a few years down the road, one of them gets hooked on painkillers and then dies of an overdose....