Your Opinion Is Wrong™

I've been thinking about the kind of music that I'd be creating for Poweranimal to play, and this has inevitably caused my mind to drift to music that I listen to frequently, and that which has influenced me a great deal (even at this early stage of the band). I still have no idea what I want Poweranimal to sound like. Hell, I have less idea of what I *expect* it to sound like, given that there are another two (possibly) equally opinionated musicians who are contributing to it.

The music I listen to is often heavy stuff. 'Metal', ja?. I think the reason I've become drawn to that kind of music is simply because of it's lack of simplicity. Many of these groups begin with the intention of creating music that's aurally challenging, and do this with downtuned instruments, distortion, distorted/screamed/growled vocals, and What Have You. Hence, it's only natural for some of these groups to take it one step further and apply this principle to the composition of the music itself.

Mudvayne, one of the first 'heavy' groups I started listening to (ending my almost exclusively electronic musical taste) started out by making music in this way. The lyrics on their first album (L.D 50) were incredibly confrontational, and pretty damn vulgar, and quite often bordering on immature. But the musicianship of each of the band members who DIDN'T sing was (and still is) pretty damn impressive, particularly the bass playing. Ryan Martini is probably the biggest influential figure in my playing. The lead lines came from the bass rather than the guitarist, who is devoted to providing background textures with various effects, as well as rhythm (probably one reason these guys are often overlooked by metal fanatics). This usually demands a bit more attention from the listener. The song structures on L.D 50 are actually reminiscent of Tool's earlier stuff, just a lot heavier, so one could refer to it as 'progressive' music if one were so inclined (I'm not, but that's neither here nor there). This means that the songs take more than a few twists and turns, and even their later albums, despite sticking to shorter, simpler songs, still have often ridiculous time signatures and tempo changes, which take many (many, many) listens to get your head 'round.

Contrast this band with another pseudo-metal outfit, Slipknot, which I got into at around the same time as Mudvayne. Mudvayne were often accused of being ripoffs of Slipknot, although that's a widely disputed claim, for good reason. The only similarity that they shared musically was the 'heavy' aspect, rather than the musical complexity and depth. This is probably why I never even bothered spending money on anything by Slipknot in the early years (hooray for p2p!). Admittedly, I own their 3rd album, but I only bought it after being impressed with an artistic change in direction, in which they seemed to be delving into acoustic and experimental areas in their songs. Buggered if I can remeber the last time I listened to it, though. What I'm trying to say is that (generally) Slipknot often just take a traditional rock/pop song structure and 'Heavy it up' with distortion and angry, angry lyrics.

Another band which are undisputedly 'metal' (even I have no trouble categorising their music) is Meshuggah. People who listen to Jen Kidman's monotone bellowing often just don't get it. I guess I don't blame them, with the crazy guy rarely even changing the note he's yelling out...not only throughtout an entire song, but often a whole album. The same goes for the guitars and bass chugging away, often using a handful of chords for an entire song. Or...album...

The main criticism people have with Meshuggah is that they have no melody to their songs. I'm always quick to tell those people that they're missing the point entirely. Clearly the band are aware that they're not dazzling anyone with an array of colourful notes and chords. They're just focusing on the counterpoint to the tonal/melodic properties of music which is often neglected in almost every genre in western music:

Rhythm. Polyrhythms and polymetrics are what these guys are good at messing with, and the music is quite technical as a result. Following the beat of the guitar lines, drum kickers, hi-hat, and, hell, even the vocals is a bit of a mental challenge. It honestly takes a lot of concentration to keep track of where you are when playing, or trying to play a Meshuggah song. But when you do, you can see just how clever the guys are at making a song that demands your attention. When you start devoting your attention to their music, a song with ridiculous complexity can become quite catchy. The catch is, this music requires a lot of active attention from the listener, otherwise it is indeed 'Just Noise', as the expression goes. As though there's a kind of music out there that isn't 'Just Noise'. But I won't get into that.

There are many, many bands out there who are basically just Metal for the sake of Metal. Copies of copies of copies, all trying to sound like the band that sounds like the band that sounds like Pantera. I don't listen to these bands for the same reason I don't listen to, say, Jet, or Wolfmother. Anyone remember Jet? Well, I'm willing to bet that that same fate is reserved for Wolfmother. But, for the same reason I don't listen to them, I don't want to end up with the same 'Let's Be Like These Guys!' philosophy as these groups.

Herein lies the problem. I'm constantly aware that eventually, I'm going to have to allow a song to influence the music I'll make, no matter how hard I try to prevent it from happening. (And that this is likely to happen sooner rather than later.) This inevitably keeps me from enjoying what I'm playing, which is not a good thing.

Catherine did shed some light on the issue, though, by bringing my attention to the differenciation between mimicry and influence. So...that settles that, I guess. Heh, heh.

I do enjoy the stuff that Catherine and I come up with together more than stuff that I attempt to play by myself anyway, so hopefully when all three of us get together and start jamming, the input of two other people will result in me enjoying the noise even more.

I might even forget that I sound like a Ryan Martini clone. Unlike Mudvayne, we're playing with a vocalist that can sing well in a live environment.

Damn. I just realised that none of this explains how I think Poweranimal will sound. Although, in a way, maybe it does.

(This has been a self-indulgent rant that I intended to publish only if I make any kind of point while writing it. I don't think I did, but it took me a while to write, so I'm just going to put it up here anyway, bad grammar and all. EAT THAT!)