Metal/Speed Solos: Annoying?

Bj-1 wrote: Some awesome, some awful. Depends on which band!

The Ryan wrote: Rushatlantic wrote: To me, in prog metal, all i hear is people playing overly fast guitar solos with the same 32nd and 64th note rhythms the entire time. I don't not like them (i actually love a great speed solo (see John Petrucci), it's just that they are so repetative that i can't tell them apart. I just wish that guitarists would incourperate more chops and rhythms into their solos like they used to (Yes, Rush, Zappa, King Crimson) and then maybe throw in a few speed solos. To me, skill isn't how fast you can play. This is why I believe rock and roll is superior to all offbrand genres, such as metal. That's a big generalization though, metal can be great but rock and roll (with all the varying rhythm) is far more diverse.

Yes, rock and roll is astoundingly diverse, Elvis, Chuck Berry, Cliff Richard...

As for shred - depends on the player. Some of it is delicious, some is random/predictable/simplistic. Also that whole "I'm faster than you" mentality is ridiculous to the extreme. Practice only to become fast enough, simply put.

That said, I think there are few really innovative guitarists out there, and I don't think you can find them in prog (bear in mind that I don't really consider fusion/RIO/Kraut/Zeuhl prog - more progressive than the symphonic bands, for example, but not prog). Most guitarists still seem to be up to their elbows in blues. I love their playing, but I really think blues is overused and holds the music back instead of propelling it. Same with jazz, actually. There are exceptions, but they seem few. 

  

sometimes it gets really borimg too  much solos [espesially when are 100 solos at the same speet],you need to have a balance .

NaturalScience wrote: Sometimes I find shredding accompanied by rapid fire double pedal work (as you'll find in most speed/thrash metal) to be cathartic in a way.  Maybe I have some underlying aggression to work out or something... I have various moods in which I like different types of music, sometimes soft, gentle acoustic stuff or lighter poppier sound works...but sometimes I just need a band to kick some A.  Ergo metal.

 

If that's the case...maybe you should try listening to some HEAVY death metal...I'm thinking along the lines of, say, Morbid Angel or Hate Eternal...

 

I have to admit - annoying, as the whole sub-genre.

Al - DiMeola......  Yay Fusion!

^^^

You can say that about almost any part of a song. If it doesn't augment the composition, than fine, but otherwise it is just a waste of time/display of technique/etc. and doesn't always make for good music.

I don't see what is the matter with the display of guitar technique. Any part of a song can ruin it, not just the guitar solo's.

^^^

I agree. Shredding (don't appreciate that word) suits the music like gentle slower and emotional guitar parts suit the prog songs we know. It bears the atmosphere of the song and conveys the power, rage, sorrow or every other feeling the song is trying to put through.

sbrushfan wrote: Funny...Yngwie claims to be influenced by Richie Blackmore...if that's the case, why can't he frickin'  slow down once in a while?

His riffs are more Blackmore influenced.

As for me, I love some "shredders"... I can listen to Yngwie, MacAlpine, Friedman, Becker, Romeo, etc. all day. It does get tiring for me a little bit every now and then... Like I realize how mindless and repititive it is sometimes... but it's just so badass, lol. But shred can sound like total sh*t especially by amatures.

Edit: Shredders I don't like - Rusty Cooley, Herman Li.

Edited by Rising Force

micky wrote: sbrushfan wrote: To me, in prog metal, all i hear is people playing overly fast guitar solos with the same 32nd and 64th note rhythms the entire time. That was certainly a by-product of 80's shred.  I don't not like them (i actually love a great speed solo (see John Petrucci), it's just that they are so repetitive that i can't tell them apart. That's why people like C.C. DeVille were hated on so much in the 80's.  HAH!!!  Poison/DeVille were quite popular back then... time hasn't been kind to that group or really any group of that ilk. He's hated (not respected is the better term) today.. not back then. Shred is fine; just inject some emotion into the playing.  Personally I find shredding boring as hell but it is purely technical isn't it... is there any place for.... emotion in it.  To make an anology we can all relate to.... shredding is to music as a 'quickie' is to sex. I just wish that guitarists would incorperate more chops and rhythms into their solos like they used to (Yes, Rush, Zappa, King Crimson) and then maybe throw in a few speed solos. Has Alex Lifeson EVER done a speed solo?  That I recall...no, and I've owned, listened to and enjoyed (almost) every one of them.  He told GUITAR WORLD that he considers himself more of a rhythm player than anything else. I agree and can't recall one either....  To me, skill isn't how fast you can play.  True, to a point.  With certain types of music (doesn't all have to be rock), though, you NEED some speed to navigate not only chord changes, but string-skipping and things like that.  Even blues guitarists like Johnny Winter and Stevie Ray Vaughan were pretty speedy, but no one would DARE to say they were "shredders" or that they "lacked emotion". Just a thought. and a good post!

 

I know Poison were HIGHLY popular in the 80's (and C.C. Deville is now starring on THE SURREAL LIFE on VH1...figures); what I meant by that comment was that the backlash against them is unbearable...you should've seen the issue of Guitar World which listed the "100 WORST SOLOS, RIFFS & LICKS."  DeVille appeared no less than 3 times!  That's right....THREE f**king times!