Dragonflight - Shredding on the guitar

Yeah, there is no shortage of reasons why I never was a fan and didn't want to link the video here. Lets not go down that rabbithole please.
If you're not logged in to youtube, you can delete your cookies to reset the recommendations, I've done that multiple times. It's quite interesting to see the results.

I try, but I'm not very good at it. I hope to be able to play the guitar parts for the blackmetal album that I'm working on though. That should be doable if I mostly keep it to 120bpm or less. When I started out over a decade ago I ruined my wrist trying to play fast powermetal riffs like from Blind Guardian or Iced Earth. Had to take a very very long break and more or less started over with a different technique and no longer trying to play fast stuff. Not ideal picking Blackmetal as a genre, with all the tremolo picking, but that's more or less the last metal genre I still listen to regularly.

Actually that was kind of the same for me. Used to listen to mostly death and turned towards mostly black over time.

I don't really like the drums in 8bit, but I actually tried writing some riffs with a chiptune synth and that worked quite well.

 

This is a fun thread

Cool, we're totally on the same page then. Although I didn't grow up with it, I more discovered it in my late teens after realizing nu-metal kind of sucks.

This was more the blackmetal-ish blackmetal I stumbled upon. I actually adore the production on this record -- his growls are immense, and it sits perfectly between "modern and polished" and "recorded in a barn". Sounds very convincingly "foresty" to me:

Also found Bal-Sagoth somewhat later for some nerdier black metal.

Kamelot is great! Love their older stuff, namely Epica, Ghost Opera, The Black Halo, etc. Had it on not that long ago and my 2 year old daughter asks for it endlessly now. Fantastic vocals, great arrangements and structure, and beautifully poetic writing.

Dragonforce is fun, I got into them in highschool as a "whoa this is fast guitar" band. Saw them live in 2008 and it was a lot of fun. Got into Dethklok around the same time, Metalocalypse was hilarious and the music was so good. Blind Guardian was a favourite as a teen too, I remember discovering "Nightfall in Middle Earth" and being blown away. It's really interesting to go back to these bands and realize that i.e. Kamelot and Blind Guardian have some really interesting harmony and cool modulations, besides the obviously memorable melodies.

This band is one that has only grown on me over time. I'm not that into "shredding" anymore, but I do like fast playing when it's interesting and tasteful, and I find this band goes about as far into "fast playing being interesting" as I've ever found. I still can't play this song properly (the verse I've got down but the right hand on the intro is tricky, and the solo at 4:16 is still out of reach). I remember one of my first listens to this band being while snowshoeing on a bright sunny day high up in the mountains, pretty awesome experience:

Here's a "way over-orchestrated but still really well done" song by the same band. When I think of legitimately "epic" metal this is what comes to mind, but it comes from the writing itself. So many catchy riffs thrown into here that are actually pretty hard to play properly despite sounding simple (i.e. 4:40). I love the slightly Japanese vibe. This band has a killer melodic sensibility, and they pull it off live fantastically well. The lead guitarist in this band has become pretty legendary over time. (I love the "going full black metal at 11:20 for a few seconds).

Yeah it's cool. It's what the guy in the above video I posted does too for writing (the shredding comes later). Quite common actually. It's cool to see the similarities.

 

I mostly post stuff for the aim of getting students and don't post on YouTube very often, but here's one from a few years ago. I wish I had more technical ability but practice has sort of dwindled in recent years. I'm just more interested in writing than getting faster:

I'm envious of the control and harmonic abilities classical guitarists have, but I'm too interested in writing to put that much time into performing.

 

Me ?? !!! Well that's a question I don't think anyone has ever asked before.

Umm..... Probably the same way I feel about people having sex with farm animals.

Which is to say: Nothing.
It's not something I ever think about, and 100% happy to keep it that way.

More and more I find so much of my everyday life can be summed up with the old man phrase "Get off my lawn".
I don't really care, and the only reason I would have any reaction is if it invades my space.

It's hard for me to describe, but it's sort of an emotional beverage made with: Indifference, and confusion.

At this stage as long as it is a fleeting moment for my attention, I don't really care.

For example: There is no way I am clicking on those links. It's bizarre and totally fucked. It's 100% predictable too.
(how could anyone click on Dark Funeral- Godhate and go "oh..... I did not expect that)

That said, I am not religious, pretty socially liberal, and know very well that the way I experience life is not the same as everyone else.
In fact each of those links are just (to my mind) like someone posting hardcore BDSM Gay porn, or Tranny Gangbang links.

Not my scene, but if it's yours ....that's cool ....just "Get off my lawn". Look.... we all have our kinks. Me too.
So my reaction is mostly numb, and indifference.

However, if we take that emotional beverage and add in boredom and too much repetition......... then I get angry and depressed.

As I mentioned above I struggle ..... alot ....... with so much meaningless information taking up my attention.
It simply invades my space, and I hate it more and more. I intentionally gave up having a phone for this very reason.


Example: I had to go see my doctor, and take a seat to wait. So I look around, waiting...... oh some magazines on the table.
Let's say it's US and PEOPLE. I'll read a headline like " SHOCKING. Find out the real reason Chris cheated on Amanda"

Yeah.... I guess I do get shocked. Who the fuck is Chris, or Amanda and why in the world would anyone give a shit, or think I would.
Oh, and a recipe to make a better casserole.

That's when the depression kicks in and I realize; My whole life, everything ....... has lead me to this moment. This...... no blaze of glory,
how utterly trivial.

So as a reaction I might look to escape, and find a Highlight magazine just like when I was a kid. They still have the cartoons of spot the difference between the two pictures. So.... I try and cope with humor. Both are of a tree and both have a squirrel. So I get my pen out, and on the right side I draw a huge cock and balls on the squirrel, with the word caption "How do you like Dez nuts ?" . I laugh, and put it back.
Only to begin feeling bad..... I think about my daughter and what would I think if she opened up the page to that picture. Ok..... I have done wrong.
The exact moment I reach that obvious insight I hear "Mom....take a seat here" and an old lady with a walker sits down right next to me. Her daughter, who would be in the 50's takes a seat right across. Fuck...... how do I just casually open up a magazine right to the page of squirrel with a large cock and try and erase it. If it was just the old lady and the walker, I'm good, but the daughter is going to catch me. Should I just do it ? Own it ? "yeah, that's my squirrel with a large cock. That's what I do lady" ....... then....... a voice "Mr. Gibson the doctor is ready to see you now". Fuck it..... it'll work itself out.


In another thread, I called Jordan Peterson a ass-clown. The main, and pretty much only reason - is I can get this asshole off my youtube side bar. I have clicked "not interested" so many times, and he keeps coming back.

I might be teaching a lesson and go to youtube to listen to Mozart's Symphony 40.
On the side I see "Jordan Peterson DESTROYS feminist"

Get off my lawn, you piece of shit. How did the code think I would care ? Off all the things I have done on the internet one of them is not to study feminist theory. I don't know feminist theory - other than the surface gist. I also do not know why I would have any interest in seeing one "destroyed". It's also 100% predictable. He was a Harvard and U of T professor, so it's pretty much expected he has more debate chops.

The most irritating is the word DESTROYS. Anytime I see a physical description being used to describe a conversation--- that person goes into my "Fucktard bag". He did not destroy anything. No one is physically threatened by this guy. He's academic and if it was a street fight a total pussy.
I would happily walk down a dark alley knowing Jordan Peterson is on the other side.
SLAMS drives me crazy too. It's very similar to this "Everything is epic" zeitgeist. Could care less about the message or political leanings, and in fact I am going to go out of my way not to engage, but the word SLAMS next to this little jewish orthodox kid........ you know.... it's just a What the fuck.The world is crazy or stupid, and I want off.


So yeah....... that's my rant. I don't know how I know about Duck Dynasty.... or even what the duck dynasty is (do they kill the ducks ? Fuck em ?),
and I also don't understand how there could be a backlash for "political incorrectness" towards them.

Really..... a fuckin Louisiana , swap redneck, who's life is dedicated to killing or fucking ducks said something stupid ? The shock. Never saw it coming.

Or Alex commenting on some band in this thread is controversial for being .... I don't even know...... is it racism, or satanism ?
100 % predictable this band, or its individual member, is totally fucked in the mind. Did they have album covers of flowers and people holding hands ? Did they cover "We are the world" ? no...

It's like going to the zoo and finding out a crocodile is creepy, and upset it ate a bird.
Let me tell you from my time in Australia......crocodiles are 100 % evil killing machines. There is no good side, nothing redeemable about them.
They are also survivors adaptors beyond belief.


Ok...... That was way more than should have been written. You know...... you can just take a thread and go anywhere with it.

That's my 2 cents. Life's big questions are never going to be solved on youtube, strive to simplify your life, be healthy... it makes you feel bette and those who honestly can say "I have enough" are the truly rich.

Now.....get off my lawn !

 

"How does Doug feel about black metal?"
Probably the same way most people do, haha.

I can't help that every time I hear that phrase I think of this sketch and how it applies to me:

I am "religious" (read: a Christian, but probably not necessarily what comes to mind when I utter that phrase), but that aside this is precisely the reason I could never take these bands very seriously (or death metal bands that obsess over gore and the like). The ones that clearly did take themselves seriously were flatly pathological and really nothing more.

That said, I'd be curious to know your opinion on the distinction between "music" and "content" (lyrical or otherwise) -- this kind of goes back to the Stravinsky quote. I may have more of a mystic's view in this regard, but I tend to think of all music as "borrowed", and in an Aristotelian sense most styles of coherent music embody basic unifying ideas like Order (as opposed to randomness or unbridled chaos). I don't think there's really anything inherent about certain styles of music (chord progressions, melody/lack thereof, timbre, vocal style, etc) that make them inherently express a certain moral content, or that because a certain style of music is used with a particular intent that it is inherently inseparable from that content. If this wasn't the case, what would we do about Wagner's music? Mongolian throat singing sounds about as weird as death metal growls the first time one hears them, and Schoenberg wrote stuff that sounds way more messed up to me than most black metal bands could pull off. A lot of black metal is also basically surfrock with heavier guitars and blastbeats being recorded in a barn.

There are a number of bands that have taken elements of this, stylistically, and applied it to much more sophisticated structure, or have similarities aesthetically but nothing to do with the content of what preceded them. At that point it seems to be more about judging the musical content for what it is. I don't know why, but metal vocals just sound like distorted guitars to me. Distorted guitars just sound like thunder, and I think thunder sounds awesome.

It makes me think of my liking of misty forests in autumn, or my lifelong tendency to be drawn more toward minor tonalities in music. I've had a number of people comment that they think it's creepy or insinuate I hate sunshine and only love "darkness", but the reality is more (in the case of a misty forest) that it feels familiar (I grew up here) and there's a subtle, contemplative, peaceful beauty to the stillness I don't see elsewhere. Same basic idea, different perspectives.

Man, I struggle with that too. I already only have basic phone features and email on my phone but I'm even considering getting rid of that. The age of information is a war for attention, because it creates ad revenue and ad revenue is now everywhere. It's also completely unsurprising that rates of anxiety and depression have skyrocketed and are strongly correlated with time spent online and on social media. Simplicity is a beautiful thing, and I see the value of a family-and-community-inclusive monk-like approach to composing. None of the nonsense going on elsewhere really matters.

Yeah, that's social media algorithms for you. Developers tend to be very hands off about their own algorithms and anthropomorphize them to defer responsibility -- "Oh we didn't know, it was the algorithm". It's abundantly obvious that they force intentionally political, controversial or otherwise content because conflict tends to keep people on social media sites for longer. More ad revenue! It's frightening really, because it works. It's also unfortunate because these click-baity titles are usually out of context, not by the subject of the video and creates a rather negative culture surrounding said subject, regardless of what they're actually saying.

Unsure about what web browser you use, but if you use Chrome:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/remove-youtube-recommende/khncfooichmfjbepaaaebmommgaepoid
Gives you a little bar icon that allows you to hide comments, recommended, homepage suggestions, etc at will. Has made YouTube more of a utility and less of an irritating waste of time.

You know what's even more creepy? Deer will eat birds given the opportunity. And yeah, reptiles are irredeemably creepy.

 

I once linked a Metal video of a song I knew on a forum without watching the whole video, thinking it was gonna be some generic darklord stuff, but it actually had gay sex in it. Imagine my surprise about the comments I soon got about that video x].

I think that's quite a healthy attitude.

I think black metal was made by and for people who think that way .



The stuff about attention and being overwhelmed with meaningless information reminds me of this video:

 

I play guitar... or more accurately, I used to play guitar. Between work and some health issues I don't find the time currently.

A friend of mine is still playing and creating cool stuff. This might be uniquely appropriate for this thread and some members here -

 

That Southpark video is fantastic. That's me !!

Great story. Imagine the surprise they got too !


This is one of my pieces for guitar, and I do have a recording of me playing it live somewhere.
This is a studio recording, and my good friend is the guitarist. I can hunt down the live version of me if anyone wants to hear it, but
the piece is exactly the same as this. PS. Around the 6:00 mark is the most technical.

 

Sadly it's most of us I believe.

Very cool, I like it!

Thanks for the suggestions, there seem to be similar addons for firefox, which I'll try out for a while. I have experimented with leechblock in the past, but that all-or-nothing approach to filtering has some severe downsides on a site like youtube that potentially can also be used for something productive or just listening to music.

 

Don't forget Emperor. They had horrid human beings in their band too, but their lyrics are more D&D-ish and far less intentionally offensive. I think Ihsahn's vocals are much more listenable now but I find these early progressions interesting, especially considering they were like 17.

Full disclosure: Do you guys actually listen to the songs here or just post, haha? I've often done the latter but I'm actually posting

 

Holy shit...... that profile picture is actually you !! I thought you pulled that from the internet as some kind of "Lord of the Rings" fan ...thing.
Just looks so "Merlin". Sort of like when you see someone you listen to on radio, I had a totally different image in my mind.

That's a lot of hair ! So jealous. It's kinda half Osama bin Laden and half "Cousin it". I bet your kid(s) pulls on that all the time. My 2 year old son
thinks it's fantastic to pull on my chest hair in public, and make me scream. Little fucker.

You are going to become like Lars Ulrich's dad

In case you don't know who "Cousin it" is

 

I've ordered new strings for my 7 string guitar: D'Addario NYXL 11|64. Those were more or less the thickest I could find, but in D or C standard tuning (or A/G if you count from the lowest string) they feel kind of floppy and rattle against the fretboard. I had flatwound strings before that felt a bit tighter but they sounded like crap. What strings should I try next time? Do I need to buy a "thin" 8-string set and only use the low 7 strings of the set? I'm afraid that would be too much tension and damage the neck. I change tunings on this guitar every now and then, but almost never play E standard.

I also have a 6 string that I'm considering to tune to C standard permanently.
Would these be thick enough to get a tight string feel on C standard tuning?
https://www.thomann.de/intl/ernie_ball_2214_mammoth_slinky_012_.062.htm

Soundwise I need them to be bright. The flatwounds sounded dull and muted compared to what I have now.

I listen to a short excerpt for all, but fully listen only to a few. I know half the bands already and so far none are really the flavors of black metal that I like.

 

You mean a "lighter" 7 string set, only use the 6 lowest and essentially tune "up" 1 semi tone from B to C?
I think the Ernie Ball Mammoth slinky strings that I linked are more or less like the low 6 of a regular 7 string set already.

I think if you know what you're doing, individually picked single strings make sense, the problem is I don't really know what I'm doing x].

Good to know, thanks!

I go through phases where I prefer different styles, but the following all have had longer stays on my playlists:

Spoiler

edit: switched out the last track for a longer version that also isn't mono

As you see it's a bit of a range of different shades of black metal, and I'm having trouble deciding what direction I want to persue with my own project. I can't even decide what guitar tuning I want to play on or whether to use the 6- or 7-string guitar. Though that last decision might be made for me if the G string on the 6-string still sounds terrible after restringing (it's a cheap guitar I bought used from ebay because it looks cool - ESP LTD F-50). The other guitar is a Jackson KE7R upgraded with a Seymour Duncan SH6 pickup (and some other SD pickup that I never use).

 

Haha yeah it's a bit much sometimes. Saves an awful lot on haircuts though. It's kind of funny -- most of my ex-infantry friends (myself being one) have some sort of longer hair/beard style and most people marvel "I never would have guess you were in the military!". To me it's precisely what it looks like. I mean the main reason is just cause I want to, but there's also something about people being after you to have your hair a certain way for 6 years...

This must be a North American thing. I imagine it's the cultural insularity. When we started travelling Europe I had a number of people tell me "oooh you're going to get flagged at airports!". Happened zero times. Most of the people we met and talked to (since culture and nationality came up frequently on both sides in a wonderfully healthy, interested way) thought I "look kind of Mediterranean, but your eyes are Germanic", which is precisely correct.

As long as I don't play an instrument like Lars, I'm okay with that. I hope I retain more hair on the head though, but that's a slim genetic lottery.

This is the only thing I'm offended by.

 

Thank you! Speaking of technique, I did a short cover for "Waves" by Guthrie Govan on my channel too and that was quite a bit harder, funnily enough.

You're spot on about control and expression though. I really do like virtuoso playing but once you've played for a while speed becomes a lot less interesting than flair and musicality. I do wish I was more capable at times though, Guthrie Govan talks about having "headroom", and it's pretty awesome to be able to do this while improvising:

But also pull this off (I thiiiiiink this was his first or maybe second take):

 

What kind of guitar do you have? It kind of depends on the scale length. If it's a 7-string I imagine it's at least 25.5". Luc Lemay used 13-74 for G in "Coloured Sands" (low G kicks in around 1:04 clean and then distorted):

I have 12-56 (I think) in C on my Epiphone SG (not terribly fond of that guitar) and the strings still aren't super tight but it starts getting weird switching between 10-49 in E and 12-56 in C due to how different picking feels. I know Jeff Loomis uses 9's on his 7 in Drop A but he has monster hands and a pretty long scale length on his guitars.

If you want to get technical: https://stringtensionpro.com/