Since I am on the older side of life now, when I comment on songs in the forum, I do try to point out things that could make a difference in the mind of the composer.  I know it is mostly a waste of time but I try.  When I am no longer able to offer advice, I know I tried while I could.
 
For this thread, I was glad to see some of you feel the same.  
 
 

Rain
I think I've recently become an old geezer, officially.
 
There's an entire generation out there who just doesn't have the heart, they just didn't have to earn it. They grew up with absolutely decent affordable beginner instruments, every amp model and pedals available at the touch of a button, gazillions of video tutorial for everything, devices that slow down the playback w/o altering the pitch and repeat passages as needed.
 
The web is infested with videos of 14 years old playing Rhoads and Van Halen and Malmsteen. Technically, they are sometime rather impressive. But how empty and heartless those performances are. 
 
They probably learned that stuff a lot quicker and are technically a hundred times as proficient as I was at their age. But all those hours we used to spent trying to learn solos from vinyl and tape, using crappy guitars that didn't stay in tune, sometimes with a missing string or two, plugged into the most unlikely substitute for an amp, all those hours, they did much more than just teach us technique - they built a relation with the music, it fed that fire, gave us that hunger.
 
Like Rocky - we had "the eye of the tiger". :P
 
I wouldn't want to be a kid today. They have no one to really look up to, except their parents heroes. Musicians are boring and unglamorous and the naivety just isn't there anymore. There's no room for magic.

Well said Rain.  When I was in 3rd grade, my dad would not buy me a drum set until I could play a long roll for 5 minutes on an old calfskin/cat gut snare drum without any bumps or glitches in the excecution.  It took me months of practice before I could do it.  I got the set even with it being a relic but that started my career.  It meant something to have to work for it.

Remember when metal music was something different from the usual fare? Nowadays even the best metal bands are basically interchangeable tribute acts. There's a reason why so many old-timers are still going strong after 30 years in the business. In any other genre, they'd just be another oldies act playing at the casino. 
 
Which is not to say it isn't good music. Just don't expect to hear anything new from that sector. On the rare occasions when somebody does attempt to deviate from the norm, they are rejected by metal fans as unauthentic.

One of my kids went with some friends to a "Battle of the Bands" semi-final recently. When the first band came on, the drummer broke two cymbals, both rack tom heads, and a drum mic within 30 seconds. (He turned the mic into shrapnel. It got off easy.) The guitarist broke two strings and no one could tell. The vocalist screamed off key, which was probably a natural reaction to being stuck in this band. The "sound" guy had a laptop open next to the board and he was using Google to search for instructions on how to mix audio.
 
The interesting thing (to me) is that this was in the semi-finals, meaning this band had already beaten somebody. How did that happen? I mean, when a truck full of geese is hit by a truck full of angry leprechauns, the result is far more musical (and much more entertaining) than these guys. How bad was the losing band? Given enough random notes, the odds were that, someday, a few of them might land in the same key. 
 
Some people elevate tone deafness and self delusion to an art. It's interesting to see that there are, apparently, more of them than the network showcases on America's Got Talent*.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
*...and no, it doesn't.

I have never been able to get into metal music. It's a popular genre here (the people who listen to it are known as bogans) so it's not like I've never been exposed to it. 
 
It just has always seemed a bit "panto" to me. The effected vocals and funny costumes. It's like the stage show "Cats". Probably punk and ska is just as ridiculous but for some reason I like bands such as The Clash and The Specials.
 
But I always loved the interviews the GWAR frontman (RIP dave Brockie) gave.

Just don't expect to hear anything new from that sector.
 
 
or any sector. Try to write a country song without sounding like a thousand other country songs; or a rock song that says something new lyrically and musically.

But I'm optimistic;
Loops, band-in-the-box, garageband and Vocaloid will make it all better.

 

What does that video mean to you Mike?  Does the music have meaning or does the cause that uses that music have meaning?  Maybe it doesn't mean anything!  

Jimmy,
 
Maybe you could just post this in the metal threads up in the songs forum?

 

Rimshot
 
What does that video mean to you Mike?  Does the music have meaning or does the cause that uses that music have meaning?  Maybe it doesn't mean anything!  

I connected with the idea that the music seems to mean something to the fellows who are depicted preparing to perform, and performing, a style of music that seems appropriate when considering the circumstances that influence their artistic expression.