The gloves are officially off now.

[MynameisBlarney]

[patricia92243]

1. What is Nickelback???

[MynameisBlarney]

4. They are one of the most reviled and unversally mocked "Nu-Metal" bands ever.

The music could be described as store brand metal.

[backscatter712]

6. Yeah, they took heavy metal and made it bland and cookie-cutter.

Nickelback is the kind of metal you'll hear in grocery stores.

[MynameisBlarney]

7. It's been made "safe" for housewives and kids!

People that like nickelback would have an aneurysm if they ever heard Slayer or S.O.D.

[Glassunion]

14. That reminds me... Should dust off some Damageplan to listen to.

[Lizzie Poppet]

18. No small irony...

...that bands like Bridear or G∀lmet, comprised of cute young Japanese women, are exponentially more metal (and absolutely blow Nickelback away in terms of musicianship).

[MynameisBlarney]

19. I'm not familiar with either of those bands.

I will have to check them out.

[Lizzie Poppet]

21. They're fun.

Bridear are straight-up power metal, fast, melodic, and with fantastic songwriting and a twin guitar pairing that's simply world class. They deliberately avoid a really clean mix (that "black background," really clean mix you get when you record at low volume) and they obviously record with everything cranked. It's not as pristine a sound...but it sounds a lot more "live," which I like better for metal. They get away with it because the execute so well. Example:

G∀lmet are death metal, growly vocals and all (one of the few bands in that whole subgenre I really get into much...not normally my style of metal). Brutal (in a good way). Here's one of my favorites, a fan tribute ("Metters" are fans of the band), complete with some adorable "Engrish" in the chorus:

[MynameisBlarney]

22. AWESOME!

Thanks!

[backscatter712]

25. Pretty sweet! My favorite death metal band: Al Namrood

Al Namrood is a Saudi death metal band, that has the death metal growl vocals, on Arabic musical scales. And while a band like Slayer might use Christian-style-Satanic imagery, Al Namrood uses Muslim-style-Shaytanic imagery.

They have to do all their recordings in secret, because if they get caught, the Saudi government will chop their heads off.

That's fucking metal.

[MynameisBlarney]

29. That IS fucking metal as hell!

Thanks for sharing this!

[Lizzie Poppet]

38. Metal is a not-so-secret passion of mine.

As I mention in a reply below, I'm not often all that down with growler vocals (I prefer them in Industrial), so that tends to bend my focus more onto power metal, etc. But definitely a metalhead...which amuses some friends no end, since I'm an (amateur) classical violinist.

[MynameisBlarney]

40. I'm not as into metal as I once was.

But it still is one of my favorite genres.

[GaYellowDawg]

27. LOL...

The "singer" in the second video sounds like she's trying to throw up. I can't see how anyone takes that shit seriously. At all. Much less as music. But each to their own, I suppose.

[Lizzie Poppet]

37. I seldom like "growler" vocals, myself.

Almost never in metal,* and because of that, almost all the metal I listen to is either power metal (in which melodic vocals are the norm), symphonic metal (ditto), or old school stuff. Gruff vocals have taken over the rest of metal, to my considerable annoyance. I enjoy Galmet, but more for their instrumental stuff than for the vocals. I do raise an eyebrow when that sort of voice comes out of a petite woman like Miki or Angela Gossow, who used to be in ArchEnemy. It's kind of like hearing a seriously shreddy guitar solo from someone like Mitsuru from Bridear (who you'd swear was about twelve, although she's actually in her mid-20's): unexpected.


*it works for me in some of the harsher forms of industrial...it just kind of fits in with, say, aggrotech and harsh electro bands like S.A.M. or Hocico

[Glassunion]

12. When you buy .95 of candy, and give the cashier a dollar. You get a Nickelback.

[patricia92243]

24. Actually for some reason, I thought it was a type of bread.

[Art_from_Ark]

32. You're thinking of pumpernickelback

[backscatter712]

2. Worse, he likes Justin Bieber! n/t

[MynameisBlarney]

5. Oh my...

That's unforgivable!

[Buzz Clik]

3. Unrecoverable. He's screwn.

[MynameisBlarney]

8. Ayup.

Totes screwn'd.

[ProfessorGAC]

9. That's A Hatred I Don't Get

In every genre there has been some band that adopts the fundamentals and then does catchy, commercial tunes in that style.

Seems if you really loathe Nickelback, then you should equally loathe Green Day, Salt n Peppa, CC and the Music Factory, and Dave Mathews. But, i'm guessing most of the NB haters don't feel that way about all these other groups who sweetened their genres to great success.

[MynameisBlarney]

10. Hatred? Who said anything about hate?

And out of all the bands you mentioned. Green Day and maybe Dave Matthews are the only ones still around as far as I know.

Salt N Peppa was hip-hop, that entire genre is about taking samples of other peoples music and making it sound good.

CC and the Music Factory? Didn't they have like, ONE hit song? Way back when MTV still had something to do with music? I wouldn't exactly call a One-Hit-Wonder a successful group.

[ProfessorGAC]

15. Huh?

You get the Nickelback thing and don't understand the hatred? OK, so let's use the word loathing.

The rest of your post has nothing to do with my point.

[MynameisBlarney]

17. I don't loathe them either, sheesh Professor, lighten the hell up.

What do you mean it has nothing to do with your point?

You threw out a bunch of random bands and called them all hugely successful, or something, I don't agree with all of your claim in that regard so I addressed what I had issues with.

Thanks for your concern.

[Marrah_G]

36. it's more like "laughing at"

[Buzz Clik]

11. Don't overthink it. It's a meme about a pop music group.

I don't like Nickelback, but I don't hate them; I simply ignore them. So, I, too, was unaware of the It's Cool to Hate Nickelback movement until I heard this from comedian Brian Posehn. He was responding to the frequently repeated notion that some rock music can make the listener violent: ""I do think certain kinds of music can make you violent. Like, when I listen to Nickelback, it makes me want to kill Nickelback."

[ProfessorGAC]

13. I'm Not, Buzz

I get your point. But, i don't dislike them. They're a pop group. The anti-Nickelback people always strike me as the type of hipper than thou folks who loved Smashing Pumpkins (or lots of other bands) until they became superstars and then slogged them as "sell-outs".

It just feels like phony outrage.

[Lizzie Poppet]

20. The metal audience is (often unreasonably) intolerant of anyone they consider a poseur.

I mentioned a couple of female J-Metal bands upthread, and from that subgenre of metal, I'll pull an illustrative example. The very popular band Aldious is getting some flak from "true believers" for their distinct shift pop-wards. Their overall power metal sound has gotten a bit more slick and (perhaps over-)refined, and there's one track, not written by the band (unusual for them), that's pure pop-punk a la Avril Lavigne, if a fair bit heavier. It's a damn catchy pop song...but it's not "metal," so there's been complaining from some quarters (which I suspect they're ignoring, because they've got a real shot at breaking out in the West).

To be fair, Aldious play a lot better than Nickelback, and I wouldn't even call them one of the more technically adept female J-Metal bands...but the musicianship standards in that little subgenre are insanely high. Bridear, Mary's Blood, and the incomparable Doll$Boxx (more "hard-prog" than metal) are mind-blowingly good.

tl:dr version: yeah, metal fans can be insufferable snobs (and that's coming from a metal fan).

[Mbrow]

28. oh yeah, I hear you,

talk to some Goths sometime.. some can be equally snobbish. I was lectured by a friend of my niece once, very sternly, about what real "Goth" was till I got annoyed and told the little twit to fuck off and talk to me when he got out to the real world and grew up some.

[Lizzie Poppet]

39. Yep...I talk to goths all the time.

I basically am one. Not the "teen with a Hot Topic gift card" kind, and hopefully not one of those insufferable narrow-definition snobs. But that's my little "scene" as far as nightlife, a lot of my music listening habits, and general style goes. The pushing-40 kind with subtler cues...at least I hope so!

[MynameisBlarney]

35. I never liked Smashing Pumpkins either. I thought they always sucked.

And just because someone doesn't like a band, or ridicules them, doesn't mean they hate them.

Also, speaking of phony outrage...seems you're getting a bit worked up over a harmless meme.

[Glassunion]

16. I look at it like this. Busch sells a crap load of beer.

Does not make it good beer.

[Codeine]

23. Amusingly, I hate all of those bands too.

Music for housewives and suburban dentists.

[MynameisBlarney]

31. Of all those bands mentioned

Green Day is the one that sucks the least.

[Codeine]

33. Faint, faint praise indeed.

But I agree; they're much less egregious than the others.

[MynameisBlarney]

34. They way he threw those band names out there

Like we were supposed to be taken aback, lol.

C&C Music Factory? lol

[2naSalit]

26. I think that's possibly an insult to Nickelback. nt

[branford]

30. Nickelback is Canadian, just like Ted Cruz!