MicShazam

I've always had a sort of moth-to-the-flame relationship with bands that are looked down upon by a lot of music nerds. I think there's something interesting about trying to elevate yourself above the instinct to dismiss something maligned and instead try to really listen to it and form your own opinion. Back when it was new, I listened to Metallica's crapfest of an album LuLu, several times, even though it's 90 minutes and frankly not very good. On some level, it was still an interesting experience, since you feel all sorts of emotions and thoughts go through your head as you try and figure out how relate to the music.

These last two evenings, I've been diving into all sorts of questionable music on Spotify, listening to lots of Limp Bizkit, Korn and other bands that don't exactly enjoy a good reputation among most people who know anything about music.

Here's a few things I learned so far.



Limp Bizkit really are crap

Listening to the track "Hot Dog" off their album Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water, it was hard not to feel an impulse to turn it off immediately and go throw darts at a portrait of Fred Durst. Jesus this song is annoying. I can't for the life of me figure out why Durst is going with that annoyingly whiny vocal style so often (or at all). And the lyrics! And the album title and artwork! Oh God this is terrible. I got a few tracks into the album and then decided to listen to some songs from other albums. This disc really is one of the worst things I've ever heard/seen. No exaggeration.

Then I try and give some random selections from their 2011 album Gold Cobra a try. This was published well after everyone had stopped caring about the band and I don't think I've ever heard anything from it. Let's see if they've grown as a band.
Hmm... allright, so Durst has toned down his annoying vocal style a lot, but the lyrics are terrible as ever and there's just nothing really going on. It's basic "jump da **** up and down" nu-metal riffing with a surprising amount of mainstream rap influence (think 50 Cent, or something in that vein). People usually defend the band by saying Wes Borland is an underrated guitarist, but I didn't notice anything interesting on any of these songs.

I took a quick look at The Unquestionable Truth Part 1 as well - since it's the album that apologists often say is less dopey, more interesting. And it's sorta true, but I doubt this will convert any "haters". I caught a few brief moments with some nice riffing going on, but Durst is insufferable as always.

From now on, when I say that Limp Bizkit sucks, I know that I'm not just parroting what other people are saying or operating on habit alone. It's confirmed now: Terrible band.



Korn are harmless and dull

This was the first band I dove into and I expected to hate it. Instead what happened was that I would end up clicking from album to album, frantically searching for a song that wasn't just a variation on their usual schtick and wasn't boring.

Some of their albums are more boring (The Paradigm Shift), some of them less boring (III: Remember Who You Are), some of them somewhat annoying (Follow the Leader), but the difference frankly isn't huge.

Some of their production choices are neat and I do like how some of their better material sounds really beefy and sort of atmospheric, but I found myself a bit surprised by just how unadventurous the band is. There's a real dearth of fun riffs and Jonathan Davis - while a singer with some expressive range - tends to run through his bag of tricks very fast on every album, so he ends up feeling very one note.

I don't think Korn is a terrible band. I just think they've spent their entire career underachieving.



Butcher Babies

This is one of the more divisive and ridiculed bands in modern metal, so I thought it would be fun to take a trip past their albums as well. The two singers are both former porn stars, I think, and the visual image of the band is pretty damn corny. They also have some terrible songs here and there (Monster's ball), but I was surprised to find that the band isn't always that bad. The two singers are capable and there's some occasionally fun riffing that mixes together varying styles of modern metal, like metalcore, death core, nu-metal and melodic death metal.

Conceptually, they're such an easy band to dismiss and make fun of, but I've heard so much worse metal. Just the fact that they fairly often manage some good, catchy riffs and even the occasional catchy vocal hook places them leagues above both Limp Bizkit and Korn.

I wouldn't call myself a new born fan of this band, but I can't hate on this. They get enough of that already. I don't think they're bad, really. They've just got a terrible visual image and a stupid band name.



In This Moment
Among the sort of modern metal fans that don't listen to all sorts of esoterica,
In This Moment is actually fairly popular, but they catch a good amount of sneering from the more "learned" music nerds as well as from old-school metalheads (you know the type). The band sounds like someone threw Marilyn Manson, Korn and Lady Gaga in a blender, so it's no wonder they rub people with "good tastes" the wrong way.

The thing with this band is that they used to irritate me quite a bit. I've bumped into their music videos whenever they've put out a new album and always found them terrible. This is really the main reason why I wanted to give them a chance again: Because I knew it would be difficult to be neutral while listening. I really do think this sort of exercise is constructive, but you can call it a waste of time if you will.

After listening to half of the album Black Widow, I can conclude that this band is a bit too over the top, quite over produced and that the singer is layering on the vocal affectations to the point of silliness. Still... I... don't quite hate it? I almost like it. The chorus to "Big Bad Wolf" sounds like Guano Apes, and I like that band. After about half of this album, I think I'm actually somewhat on board with it. I turned it off and ordered it for cheap on Amazon. Gonna take a chance and see what I think of the whole thing after a few full listens.

Is this band ridiculous? Probably very - but then, so is a lot of well loved metal. Remember how I compared In This Moment to Lady Gaga?
Some songs really bring the pop hooks and I'm a sucker for a good hook. The song "Dirty Pretty" is a prime example of this band in full on Lady Gaga mode.

I'm gonna post that one and let that be it for now:

In This Moment - "Dirty Pretty" (Official Audio)