Shredders of Metal!

hotpickups

Lol he said melodic? lol. Sorry I'm out

Philly_Q

Just watched episode 1.  Well gosh, it certainly went by very fast... feels more like edited highlights than an actual show.

I enjoyed it as a piece of entertainment, but for a music show it's not very... musical.  Maybe if they had a rhythm section or even just a backing track... And they've not exactly searched far and wide for that talent pool of contestants.

Glad they've got Alex Skolnick on there, I've watched a few interviews with him recently and the guy fascinates me.  Take away the hair and he looks and sounds exactly like a slightly eccentric college professor.

axisus

Shred is a much maligned form of guitar playing. It's pretty unfair considering that it does require a degree of talent and ability. I used to listen to a lot of shred in the 90s, I don't bother with it now really but I think it deserves more credit than in gets. 

prlgmnr

Philly_Q said:

Glad they've got Alex Skolnick on there, I've watched a few interviews with him recently and the guy fascinates me.  Take away the hair and he looks and sounds exactly like a slightly eccentric college professor.

Leave the hair and he looks and sounds like an EXTREMELY eccentric college professor.

Actually, one of my philosophy professors was in a NWOBHM band back in the 80s.

NelsonP

To be fair shred was pretty silly in the late 80s. Now its just ridiculous. I admire the technical virtuosity it requires, but it just leaves me so cold. I didn't really see any of the judges bobbing their heads, tapping their feet or actually seeming to enjoy what they were hearing.

I'd rather watch a show that allowed any genre to enter - e.g. shred, rock riffing, funky strumming, jazz improv and even the stuff that Jon Gomm etc are into (whatever that is called)

PS I had to google NWOBHM. To save others the trouble it basically means Iron Maiden and the like.

axisus

NelsonP said:

PS I had to google NWOBHM. To save others the trouble it basically means Iron Maiden and the like.

Youngster ....

mikeyrob73

watched it till they mentioned the Banger Hanger, couldn't watch anymore 

hotpickups

Only my opinion and I'm sure I'll be shot down for saying it but it just feels like a circus act. I mean it's amazing to witness the dexterity of some metal players but I just find it soulless. Technically amazing to watch though for a short while

NelsonP

axisus said:

NelsonP said:

PS I had to google NWOBHM. To save others the trouble it basically means Iron Maiden and the like.

Youngster ....

Thanks - its been a while since someone called me that ;-)

DLM

Vibetronic said:

Nice they got some young players in who weren't actually all technically perfect (agree with DLM that there's loads better out there, but that might have made it less interesting?

@Vibetronic I don't think it would have. There are millions of ways to be awesome and still totally different. I kind of objected to forcing everyone to alternate pick a bit. Other note attack techniques are totally acceptable ways of executing the same notes. The problem with getting so many candidates on who aren't ready to shred in public yet is that the audience (as we can partially see in this thread) thinks they have been judged worthy of competing. There's no "this is beginners/intermediates giving the best they've got" tagline.

The frankly horrid guitar tones needed addressing, too. I can't believe they really wanted to play with it like that. I appreciate the tech hassle getting good sounds causes, but the winner sounded absolutely fine.

Oh, and the silliness of metal is indeed one of the things that makes it awesome! I missed seeing Loudness for the second time for free last night because I was so worn out. But I consoled myself by checking out Eternity's End - The Fire Within for the first time. That is how shredding is done. I'll let @Bucket take over the fanboiing over Christian Münzner, I'm off to A&E with my still-runny face in a bucket to get it plastered back on again.

prlgmnr

NelsonP said:

PS I had to google NWOBHM. To save others the trouble it basically means Iron Maiden and the like.

ffs

Philly_Q

axisus said:

Shred is a much maligned form of guitar playing. It's pretty unfair considering that it does require a degree of talent and ability. I used to listen to a lot of shred in the 90s, I don't bother with it now really but I think it deserves more credit than in gets. 

I had - still have - a lot of the Mike Varney/Shrapnel stuff.  US Metal, Tony MacAlpine, Greg Howe, MARS Project, Chastain, Racer X, Michael Lee Firkins, Joey Tafolla, Guy Mann-Dude.... I don't know if it would even be called shred by today's standards, though.  I guess Jason Becker and Marty Friedman would.

I still like some of it, like Vinnie Moore's Minds Eye album.  But my favourite is Richie Kotzen's Fever Dream, which ironically was the first album where he sang and had actual songs.

simey83

Daft at the start, got better as it went on. Final was great. Cheers

NelsonP

prlgmnr said:

NelsonP said:

PS I had to google NWOBHM. To save others the trouble it basically means Iron Maiden and the like.

ffs

I had to Google ffs. To save others the trouble it was a supergroup formed by Scottish indie rock band Franz Ferdinand and American rock-pop band Sparks.

They weren't very shreddy.

Philly_Q

I've just had a marathon viewing of episodes 2 to 6 (who needs sleep anyway?). 

Although it becomes clear they shot the entire thing in about an hour and a half, the different "rounds" are quite imaginative and it really improves once it gets down to the last 3 or 4 players.  Definitely the right winner. 

It was fun.  I enjoyed it more than Guitar Star, that's for sure.

Vibetronic

DLM said:

Vibetronic said:

Nice they got some young players in who weren't actually all technically perfect (agree with DLM that there's loads better out there, but that might have made it less interesting?

@Vibetronic I don't think it would have. There are millions of ways to be awesome and still totally different. I kind of objected to forcing everyone to alternate pick a bit. Other note attack techniques are totally acceptable ways of executing the same notes. The problem with getting so many candidates on who aren't ready to shred in public yet is that the audience (as we can partially see in this thread) thinks they have been judged worthy of competing. There's no "this is beginners/intermediates giving the best they've got" tagline.

The frankly horrid guitar tones needed addressing, too. I can't believe they really wanted to play with it like that. I appreciate the tech hassle getting good sounds causes, but the winner sounded absolutely fine.

Oh, and the silliness of metal is indeed one of the things that makes it awesome! I missed seeing Loudness for the second time for free last night because I was so worn out. But I consoled myself by checking out Eternity's End - The Fire Within for the first time. That is how shredding is done. I'll let @Bucket take over the fanboiing over Christian Münzner, I'm off to A&E with my still-runny face in a bucket to get it plastered back on again.

all fair points mate, I do get where you're coming from And yes, apart from the winner (whose tone was bearable) the rest did not have nice sounds. 

One thing I don't get - having gone back and looked at the contestant bios, the first guy is from a band called Striker - I've bought some of their stuff, it's very decent straightforward metal with plenty of shred (and with going back to listen again, I seem to remember it all sounded really good!), and I'm really puzzled as to why he was fairly crap now! Did not know he was from that band! 

Vibetronic

Vibetronic said:

DLM said:

.

Oh, and the silliness of metal is indeed one of the things that makes it awesome! I missed seeing Loudness for the second time for free last night because I was so worn out. But I consoled myself by checking out Eternity's End - The Fire Within for the first time. That is how shredding is done. I'll let @Bucket take over the fanboiing over Christian Münzner, I'm off to A&E with my still-runny face in a bucket to get it plastered back on again.

I LOVE the silliness of metal. Grown men and women who make grunting/screaming sounds for a living for starters. 

Philly_Q

Vibetronic said:
One thing I don't get - having gone back and looked at the contestant bios, the first guy is from a band called Striker - I've bought some of their stuff, it's very decent straightforward metal with plenty of shred (and with going back to listen again, I seem to remember it all sounded really good!), and I'm really puzzled as to why he was fairly crap now! Did not know he was from that band! 

I don't know the band., but maybe he's only recently joined and wasn't on those albums?

More likely, he just didn't get much chance to show what he can do because he got kicked out so early.  He went first, he looked a bit nervous and what he played wasn't very interesting, but he might actually be a little better than a couple of the players who survived longer.

LuttiS

The winner was pretty obvious from episode 1, and he was very good. Most of it was pretty painful to watch though.. Last two episodes (where backing tracks were introduced) were much more fun. Final did make me smile

4/5 stars. Enjoyed. Would recommend to a friend.