Top-10 Most Overrated Metal Bands

Yo everybody! I've been listening to a lot of stuff lately, particularly thrash metal, and I've been thinking a lot of how some bands are really overrated. Particularly in thrash there are many bands to be found that meet that criteria. I'm sure you're already on to a few of those which I'm about to talk about. But instead of dragging my shit any further, let's start looking the actual overrated metal bands (of all styles).

***Just note***This list doesn't necessarily intend to make these bands appear as bad ones. Just overrated in some kind of sense, which I will also describe in their descriptions respectively.

***Extra note***If you xpected to see some shitty band that is missing, then maybe it's just so shitty that I simply don't listen to it altogether. Examples: Limb Bizkit, FFDP, Slipknot, etc.


10. Iron Maiden

To start off this list I'll go with my very first favorite band in metal. Now, Iron Maiden is awesome, most of us agree on that, but many of us also cannot deny the fact that they're very, very repetitive. I mean, how many galloping bass lines can you make songs out of? Many, apparently. Also, let me just point out that my favorite songwriter in Maiden is Adrian Smith.


9. Sepultura

Another great band ... until "Roots" came along. I absolutely love Sepultura pre-"Chaos A.D." and post-"Kairos", but most of those records in between there were not at all my kind of metal, and my opinion says that I don't understand how "Roots" (in particular) could become so popular.


8. Van Halen

An absolutely amazing quartet of musicians, both the Van Roth and Van Hagar eras, although I never ever liked the Van Hagar era. I listened a lot to these guys during my first few years as a headbanger, and while they're perhaps not that "metal", they still apply to us metalheads, I believe. But what happened is that they did an awesome debut record, and went straight downhill after that. The other David Lee Roth-fronted albums all had a few songs each of interest, but not really that much worthy of noting (although the musicianship was always great).


7. Kreator

Three words plus one equals? "Pleasure To Kill" = awesome. I love that record. The one before it, the debut, was pretty okey as well. However, after PTK I just don't know what the fuck happened. I just find the rest of their stuff to be very boring thrash. Also, "Extreme Aggression" is one of those classic examples of what kind of sound/production a metal record should not have. It just strips away all the weight from the music. It's supposed to sound heavy, right? Well, it fucking doesn't.


6. Morbid Angel

Much like the Kreator of death metal to me. "Altars Of Madness", of course, is an awesome classic. After that I just thought they lost it. I know many people like a few more records they did, but I just don't think they could ever match the success of their debut ever again.


5. Metallica

"Oh, what an obvious choice!", I can hear you thinking. Well, people are right about Metallica being overrated. Partially. Their first four are fucking awesome, I will always love them. However, post-"...And Justice For All" they've been most mediocre or outright bad. I mean, I understand why people love the first four albums, but that's not enough to make them as big as they indeed are. So yes, they are one of the most overrated metal bands. Plain and simple.


4. Sodom

Oooo, now I'm starting to invade on dangerous territory. I am very well aware of how much appreciated Sodom are with metal fans, but I simply could never really understand the fuzz about them. I found it even harder after hearing "Agent Orange", their perhaps most loved and well-known record, because to me it just sounds like a manifest of stolen riffs. I can hear Megadeth, Sacred Reich and other stuff in that. They just never came along as very original to me. With that said there still are some stuff I appreciate, like "Tapping The Vein" for instance. That one is pretty cool.


3. Exodus

Now I'm slowly conquering just about every thrasher's closed-minded ego here. If any band on this list were plain out bad, then that one band certainly is Exodus. I can honestly say that I've never ever understood what so many people see in their music. To me, they just sound so goddamn fucking boring. Unimaginative riffs, uninspired songs, and worst of all are the extremely cartoonish B-rate vocals a'la Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth (Overkill) style.All I can say whenever I hear Steve "Zetro" Souza, at least in Exodus (he was pretty good in Tenet), is "thank Satan that Testament got Chuck Billy instead". I honestly did not even think that the widely acclaimed "Bonded By Blood" album was anything special. Thanks but no thanks, Exodus.


2. Slayer

And now I've officially pissed off every metal around the world. Well, honestly, I know I don't have. I actually think it's relatively common to see metalheads express their distaste for Slayer these days. Not that I don't like 'em, fuck no, I love Slayer! Don't get me wrong, they're fucking awesome! I especially love the "Hell Awaits" album, but everything up till "Divine Intervention" is very good, really. It's just that they lost their steam after that, and there are so many other bands that do or did a similar thing to what Slayer did, but even better. I mean, "Reign In Blood" is by far the most overrated thing about Slayer. Ever heard Dark Angel's "Darkness Descends" album, or Kreator's "Pleasure To Kill"? Pretty much the same thing, only way better, and both of those were (also) released in 1986. Catch my drift? Very good band, just not that good.


1. Nirvana

And the crowned king of this list is none other than the grunge kings Nirvana. I'll admit that I at one point in time did listen to them, a bit (like five songs), when I was like 12 (I am almost 26 now). As I grew up, however, they sound like nothing but children's or angsty teens' "punk" rock to my ears. I'm not overly too fond of grunge otherwise either, but I do love Alice in Chains in particular, and I enjoy listening to some earlier Soundgarden and Mother Love Bone as well. But Nirvana? No. Once again, they're not really a metal band, but since grunge is generally affiliated with metal and its fans, I chose to include (and crown) them for this list.

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I hope you enjoyed this list. Remember, this is just my opinion. It doesn't mean shit to you, just like yours means shit to me. But it can be fun to share and discuss. Well, this is my invitation to discussion, agreement or disagreement.

Peace! //J.

The Best AND Most Disappointing Albums Of The Year 2012

I remember back during the first half of my teen years, maybe like 2003-2007, there were very few new(er) bands that I liked. I was a very closed-minded, old school-only listener and listened to almost 80's music exclusively, apart from the 70's Gods like Sabbath, Zeppelin, AC/DC, Purple, and so on, you get the picture. In 2007, however, all that changed and I started to expand my musical mind with a big step into the 90's music (still dissin' the modern metal of that time, which still is pretty much the same metal today, unfortunately). The music was Death Metal, particularly the Swedish, classic old school-era and the East coast (Stockholm) sound. Entombed was the first band to break me into it with their legendary debut "Left Hand Path", but was soon followed by Dismember, which from that point to this day remain my favorite death metal band ever.

Anyway, in late 2007 I needed to cool off from all the ultra-pissed off extreme metal with something more mellow, but I wasn't really in the mood to return to my old NWoBHM / heavy and thrash metal, as well as AOR. To add is that I totally abandoned AOR in mid-06 when my band got a re-charge and we started to crank thrash metal 24/7 for some innovative influence and cleansing (the others were into Sum 41-punk, which is faggot punk, as well as nu metal, very much to my distaste as I've never liked those music styles). After that, whenever I hear AOR, I can't listen to it. It's just too much "midlife crisis music" to me, and I'm still young, hungry, and in need of going crazy to music, not in need of some cozy fucking and tender words during it after some wine and a luxious dish.

But as I was trying to explain, in late 2007 I took a pause from death metal and got addicted to early 90's alternative music and metal. With the great Jane's Addiction cracking me into this wave, it all soon followed with bands like Alice in Chains, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Mr. Bungle, and particularly Faith No More, which today is my favorite band. Danzig was another band I really cranked a lot every day, but I actually started to get into them in 2005 already (they had one 80's album ... they passed my then-rule #1: only 80's) and in 2006 they pretty much were the only non-thrash band that I listened to. I even had a T-shirt with their classic Devil's skull and logo (it became to small later on and I gave it to a skinny friend in 2009 or early 2010). So Danzig was pretty much the first 90's band I ever listened to and they are to this day a top-5 favorite band o'mine. Then I also got into old school hip-hop, electronic music and so on. My musical has expanded all the time and still does.

BUT NOW I'M DONE WITH THE HISTORY LESSON. I'm sorry, I just have so many fond memories and too much love for the music to not wander off like that. The point with all that is that today, I listen to all kinds of music, or at least I give it a shot, and it doesn't matter what time it was made in either.

So 2008 was a pretty bad year musically, I wanna recall? However, it WAS a year when things started to get better, and it has gotten better with each year since then. I thought 2011 was a pretty great as well as surprisingly good year musically, but I think I dare to say that 2012 has topped it!

Here's my list of this year's best albums:

1. Overkill : The Electric Age
- Intense, high-energy, "electrified" thrash (see what I did there! *ba-dum-tsch*). After the phenomenal Ironbound in 2010, Overkill went for a less proggy approach this time, but still kept the total-ass-kicking intact. The album of the year for me, congrats guys!

2. Steelwing : Zone Of Alienation
- As a fan of the New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal retro style, particularly the Swedish bands, this was a real solid ball of metal. I love everything about this album. I'm actually even going back and forth whether this is even better than Enforcer's Diamonds (2010) or not.

3. Unleashed : Odalheim
- And this one goes for the Death Metal album of the year. While they actually are a band whose latter material I prefer before their old, classic stuff, this album only made it more obvious: it fucking kicks ass! Their best album yet!

4. Rage Against The Machine : S/T remastered "XX 20th Anniversary"
- I know, not nearly a "new" album by any means, but a nice remaster, if not too different from the original, and it's got their first demo as well as some live tracks as bonus material, and that is what makes this release so great for any RATM fan.

5. Kill Devil Hill : S/T
- Maybe there are a few releases that would deserve this spot more, but I chose this because, 1. I for one really like this album, 2. I really looked forward to it for quite many months. I can confess that I wasn't reaaally satisfied with my expectations upon hearing it, but still it's a great album. I really like the voice.

6. Down : Part IV: The Purple EP
- I love Down, especially their third and latest full-length album. This was not a let-down apart from the one little fact: this is an EP. If it only would've been a full-length release and pretty much as good or better than Over The Under, it would've landed on fourth place.

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Here's my list the most disappointing albums of 2012:

1. Testament : Dark Roots Of Earth
- Well. I love them, they're one of my absolute favorite bands, but no, something went wrong here. I was sooo anticipated about this one, and it finally showed to have been way too much. I was totally disappointed. It's not a bad album and Alex Skolnick is amazing, one of my favorite leads ever. The music's just too mediocre and Native Blood was a bad choice for a single. Also disappointing that my favorite drummer Gene Hoglan didn't get to do what he does best - beating the shit outta the drums, making tsunamis all over the world from the blastwaves.

2. Fear Factory - The Industrialist
- I had a moment of a few months in 2009 where I was addicted to their classic album Demanufacture, but just like then, the rest of their stuff still just sound recycled in a shittier form. Boooring.

3. The Devin Townsend Project - Epicloud
- I love Dev, I love his music, I have followed his music since 2007 I think, when I discovered Strapping Young Lad. Never has any of his albums really disappointed me. Some were not master-masterpieces, but they were great. This one was not a funny listening experience. After hearing preview samples from it, I didn't feel like anything really stuck out to me, and upon hearing the album I got it confirmed. It was kinda boring. But I don't judge Devin. The man is constantly trying out new approaches with his music, even if his trademark wall-of-sound is present everywhere, and one cannot simply make awesome albums without failing at least once. To me, this was Dev's first failure, and not a big one at that.