Quote:
Originally Posted by stupidheader
Ive seen stuff like that used in heavy metal too. Especially folk metal. I think it's the way you play, more than what you play.
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That's my point. Too many bands throw in these instruments and think they have a gothic americana sound instead of realizing that americana itself has a certain style and/or sound. In and of itself, it's hard to pin down exactly. Americana is a blend of folk, country, bluegrass, etc.
Folk Metal is exactly what's it's supposed to be. Metal and folk fused together. Some gothic americana bands play ****ty music on acoustic instruments, sing with a growl or over emphasized drawl or croak and think "Bam! We have a southern gothic/gothic americana/hellbilly/whatever sound".
Musicianship and quality songwriting/composing isn't found to often within this genre, IMO. That could be because there isn't a lot of support in local areas for these bands. So, they record some demos, it spreads abit, they get tired of no one listening and they never give it time to grow into something of quality.
16 Horsepower is a good example of this. There first EP was different at the time and pretty good because there wasn't anything really like that out there. By "Low Estate", they really honed in on there craft and made much better music, IMO. ("Folklore" is my absolute favorite 16HP album.)
Pinning down music into a genre is always a tricky thing to do, anyway. It's a matter of personal taste and opinion. We could argue for months about genre sounds and styles and why on artist(s) should be considered this or that and definitely not that or this. It's fun, till someone loses a toe or something.