Videos of young ladies doing what men normally do seem to get you guys riled up. (See here.) So here’s another. This is “Meghan the Metal Queen”. She is such a metal queen that while she shreds (nice string skipping!), her mother makes her bed – which looks like it’s worth more than all my worldly possessions combined. Evidently the song she is covering is The Faceless’ “Prison Born”, which is new to me, and hopefully will remain that way forever.
But holy moly, do the kids love that song. On YouTube, they’re covering it on guitar, bass, drums, and vocals. Actually, they’re covering pretty much every technical death metal band on guitar, bass, drums, and vocals. I kind of want these kids to get off YouTube and to form bands with actual people. But then they’ll probably just form more technical death metal bands, which would just spawn even more YouTube videos, until YouTube becomes an incomprehensible mush of sweep picking and blastbeats. Remember when metal bands wrote songs?
Now that YouTube positively bursts with female shredding (do a search for “girl guitarist”), the novelty factor is disappearing. When a 12 year-old girl plays Van Halen’s “Eruption” like it ain’t no thang, it’s clear that times have changed. When I was growing up, the only female shredders were Jennifer Batten and The Great Kat. (There was also jazz guitarist Leni Stern, but I wasn’t that hip.) The CD’s I had of both were awful. It seems that the shredder’s tendency to emit streams of notes and not music is not gender-specific. Hopefully today’s lightning-fingered kids will figure out how to use their powers for good.
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Thanks to Liz for the tip!
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Yeah, but can they shriek like Possessed Demoness?
I don’t know…
Fretboard wankery is one thing, but can you write a SONG?
I am totally amazed at folks who can play anything & everything, but Why is “Paranoid” remembered? Why is “Number of the Beast” remembered? Why is “Ace of Spades” remembered? Why is “Back in Black” remembered?
Because they are fucking awesome SONGS!
Still, this is a hell of a talent and I quote “Hopefully today’s lightning-fingered kids will figure out how to use their powers for good.”
She’s good, but she’s no Karai Saki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karai).
When I was growing up, the only female shredders were Jennifer Batten and The Great Kat.
I have no doubt you’re right, but when you were growing up there wasn’t YouTube so every schmuck who picked up a guitar couldn’t film him/herself recording covers of whatever shitty song.
This doesn’t mean shit unless she starts a band.
So metal.
+1 on the Karai Saki comment. Female Shredder. Ha.
On the topic, most of my favorite ~music~ is performed by people who are very talented on their instruments, no doubt, but more concerned with deployment of tunes than sheer technicality. Perhaps latter-day Death and few other favorite death metal bands transcend mere adequacy into absurdity in the technical prowess department, but they rarely forget their songs while flaunting their chops. Most proggy stuff just doesn’t do it for me. Heck, Nirvana’s ~Bleach~ can be played within weeks of picking up a guitar (for the most part)… but that doesn’t mean it isn’t an inspired, supremely affecting heavy album… one I’d put on over Dream Theater 99 times out of 100.
I’m with you, Cosmo. When it comes to metal bands being “progressive” or “technical,”I like a tasteful amount of chops mixed in with THE ABILITY TO WRITE A CATCHY SONG. Atheist, Coroner and even Watchtower in some moments completely mastered this. I think there’s a considerable amount of newer bands doing a decent job at this– Stargazer, Obscura, etc– but they aren’t gonna catch on with kids who are just looking to spell “brutal” with two zeros and trying find the song with the most studio-edited triggered blast beats and ridiculous shred.
Cosmo I am surprised at you, as well as Asa and TomB.
This clip does not do them justice but IMO The Faceless are probably the absolute best of the new wave of tech-death metal, and when they were a deathcore band they were ALSO the best deathcore band. They do write actual songs, actually VERY catchy songs.
I cannot recommend their record ‘Planetary Duality’ enough, and truly think all the old-school readers here would do very well to give it two or three listens and then re-evaluate.
But on to the girl: nothing too special. Glad she isn’t trying out for Dreaming Dead.
Props to her for the patience and diligence to develop her chops–obviously she can play, but it ain’t got that…soul. I think there’s a whole generation of younguns (young guns?) out there whose rock n roll education is seriously lacking in some areas. A few examples might be Detroit rawk n soul (MC5 et al), early metal gods (Randy Rhoads, etc) and 70’s punk (fuckin Television!) and tons of others, all based on the fucking BLUES! Simple robotic techshredding by anybody of any gender is fucking boring. It’s like the missionary position–uninspiring for either party, in this case, mostly the viewer.
I think most of the attention is due to the fact you have an attractive woman handling a phallic shaped instrument (in short shorts, natch.) One cursory look at the comments of these YouBoob videos more than confirms that fact.
For the sake of fairness (or a feeble attempt to relate to our youth) I gave some upstart proggy-tech-death bands a shot: the Faceless, Born of Osiris, Veil of Maya, and some instantly forgotten Victory albums I got in a pile of promos. The first 3 were better than the others, easily… but none of it stuck. Lots of weedly-deedly bullshit, no real songs, bizarre bursts of Cynic worship which, while admirable, ultimately fail to elevate the schizophrenic songwriting. Ultimately, nothing I felt like hearing.
I can tolerate a band like Obscura, because at least their songs coalesce into something song-like in the end. Most of the younger bands, however, are putting out records before they know how to write them. A foundation in deathcore isn’t doing these kids any favors.
It’s long since been proven that just about anyone can pick up enough musical prowess to be in a cover band or play cover anything. But when these people start trying to write thier own music is usually when the field gets cut by well more than half.
i havent watched the video yet,but dont need to know that you guys are right about the whole “tech” thing,it just sounds like noodling. jacking off with an instrument isnt a song,even if 4 or 5 people do it at the same time. not dissing the chick,i havent watched the video yet,so…
Eh, I’ll stick up for the Faceless too. They’re better than their peers by far, and definitely do write actual songs. Still, the kids who dig them often seem to be the crowd drawn to Brain Drill. It’s like with Dream Theater, I guess: hyper-technical bands that I like, but where the technicality isn’t why I care. I can understand the hate, especially of the fans, of course.
What’s incredible to me is how anyone can memorize a song that has NO musicality whatsoever.
Her expression is like she’s washing her hands, no emotion.
why is song form the end all be all of musical enjoyment? this isnt pop music. sure, most metal pieces have lyrics, but theyre often hardly the focus (especially in a band such as The Faceless). perhaps this style is too mannerist and overindulgent for some peoples tastes, but i would argue that those are big parts of technical death metal and if one expects less, then s/he should consider listening to a different style of music. maybe what the artist is trying to express is lost on some when the form is harder to comprehend than a piece that revolves around a refrain. i personally find song form to be very restrictive and hindering to an artist trying to compose pieces without the limitations of convention. what is so interesting about a band who writes amazing, attention-grabbing riffs, only to throw them into a redundant structure that has been beaten to death by countless other bands in countless genres?
@Saturn.
I’ll let you down easily before a more vicious attacker does.
That’s a cop-out, bro. Song structure means more than just verse-chorus-verse-bridge-chorus. It means crafting something coherent, and intricate music can certainly be coherent. Now, Prison Born isn’t their best song and the Faceless do have well-written songs, but riffs can’t just be thrown into a jumbled mess. If someone finds the songs incoherent, it’s not because they only expect traditional songs.
“…holy moly, do the kids love that song. On YouTube, they’re covering it on guitar, bass, drums, and vocals. Actually, they’re covering pretty much every technical death metal band on guitar, bass, drums, and vocals. I kind of want these kids to get off YouTube and to form bands with actual people. But then they’ll probably just form more technical death metal bands, which would just spawn even more YouTube videos, until YouTube becomes an incomprehensible mush of sweep picking and blastbeats…”
I laughed
Joseph Schafer: “This clip does not do them justice but IMO The Faceless are probably the absolute best of the new wave of tech-death metal… They do write actual songs, actually VERY catchy songs.
I cannot recommend their record ‘Planetary Duality’ enough, and truly think all the old-school readers here would do very well to give it two or three listens and then re-evaluate.”
I readily agree with you on this one, The Faceless set themselves apart from a vast majority of the new tech-death/prog-metal bands flooding the scene.
Dante: wow, pretty ignorant comment; I take it you’ve never listened to a lot of jazz either? and I’m not just talking about fusion.
listen to ANY song enough, and it’s easy to memorize note for note. there’s definitely musicality, but I’m gonna go ahead and assume from your comment that you’re not a musician.
This is a joke, right? I mean, I have a lot of respect for young musicians, and in particular women, shredding, playing difficult chords, running through scales, etc., but at least she could do something more original or at least her own music. I’m not a fan of The Faceless, and agreeably this looks like a fairly difficult and technical song, but those who spend time posting videos of themselves online covering other musician’s shit is a waste of time. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy cover bands to a degree but this video isn’t her doing necessarily a “cover”. I do agree however, that there is an ever-increasing volume of women in the Metal genre today, which is great, coupled with that of younger men and women performing/creating great music (look at Decapitated when they began!), but why cover such a mediocre band to begin with? Maybe if she was covering The Great Kat, then yes I’d have a bit more respect… Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, right?
@Alex_P
the word “song” by definition has two major implications: focus on human voice and lyrics and the use of a refrain. im not suggesting that pieces should be disorganized or that riffs should “be thrown into a jumbled mess.” structure is a very important part of music, but there are many ways to organize music than with song form. song form is a cop out.
You guys are just jealous because that 16 year old is going to spend the next few years bouncing between a couple of dudes in deathcore bands instead of between a bunch of nerds arguing about whether tech death is ‘music’.
+1 on the support for the Faceless — far and away the best of their peers. Their stuff meets at the intersection of deathcore and tech-death, works very well. They absolutely blew me away at Summer Slaughter ‘07, been a fan since.
Wow. Did NONE of you (Cosmo?) actually look at youtube and notice that she does have a band? They even has a guitar (pick, strap) endorsement!
Incidentally, her band is terrible.
Yep, I did. I never said she didn’t have a band.
Oh. Sorry. That was how I read the “actual people” line.
Oh. Sorry. That was how I read the “actual people” line (which was hilarious, as others have noted).
Damn interwebs.
Not gonna’ lie. I love me some tech death. But I do agree that a lot of tech death bands play a lot of “not-so-songy-songs”. The only two that come to mind at the moment that can make well-written songs that aren’t as well known as say, Suffocation, are Hour of Penance and Fleshgod Apocalypse; they can write pretty good songs, at least in my opinion, especially for tech death of modern times.
She’s grown enough to have memorized this jittery bullshit but her mother has to make her bed? Bitch please…
Any woman that plays anything in a band other than bass automatically wins.
@UA
Keyboards? How about frontwomen who only play the boobs (like Maria from In This Moment)?
great song, great band, excellent attractive female guitarist. One of the very very few bands of this style I actually like because they can write songs.
Yep, I’m gonna stick up for The Faceless too. Not a band I listen regularly, but I do appreciate them and what they do. Plus one of their guitar players reminds me so much (in mannerism) of Chuck Schuldiner when he plays, its striking.
As long as there’s youtube and Summer’s Laughter and deathcore and Hot Topic, we’ll always have these kids doing video covers of awful songs.
*yawns*
When can we find teenage kids doing covers of Autopsy and Bolt Thrower? Probably not, because they’re not safe or cool for the next generation.
@Alex_P
I’m all for chicks playing the boobs, come on…
If you click on her youtube profile you she that she is in a band and shes recorded 5 tour diary’s :O
@Carm
This. Where’s the Bolt Thrower covers?
You try writing the song “Akeldama”.
People don’t seem to get that even if your opinion is that it isn’t a coherent, well written song, that doesn’t mean that it in fact isn’t a coherent well written song. Shredding and technicality and all that junk help shape the tone of the composition.
Technical Death Metal. Emphasis on the words “Technical” and “Death Metal”. Abrasive, hectic, constantly shifting time and key. This shit ain’t Sodom.
I don’t see how complexity is not “musical”. The more complex a piece the harder it is to understand, obviously, but one you understand it that piece becomes a song rather than a confusing pile of riffs and solos.
@Carm
I love Bolt Thrower about as much as I love The Faceless, but i must say being able to play a Bolt Thrower song is not necessarily impressive. I’m a sub-par bassist, but I think i learned every riff on Those Once Loyal in two or three listens?
this thread is very quickly becoming an illustration of an unnecessarily ugly generation gap.
I’ve unfortunately seen The Faceless open for Enslaved back in 2007. Needless to say, The Faceless bored me to death with their doodlididleedoos and I opted to head to the bar to wait out their set. I came to the show to watch A METAL SHOW. Not a “Betcha Can’t Play This” jock-o-rama. They got a good response from the usual Hot Topic deathcore kids in the crowd who are only there to start fights and act like assholes in the pit with their stupid karate chop moves. The same group of kids who were cheering on The Faceless left before Enslaved even set up their equipment.
By contrast, Enslaved lit up every nerve in my body that night and more than made up for that godawful band that preceded them.
@Joseph
>”this thread is very quickly becoming an illustration of an unnecessarily ugly generation gap”
IMO it’s impossible to “mimic” BT without sounding exactly like them. I mean, if one was going off ROC. RE: young guys that are into Autopsy, older DM, etc. there are tons of “old school” bands now, they absolutely rip off lesser Swedish Death and/or Incantation…and as everyone knows the Autopsy demos and first LP are the key to all Swedish death…
I never thought I would see the day when Incantation was seen as “classic.” I’m fucking old.
Foeglitarian, you must be high. There’s no way you can call that “music” or “good.”
I’m always extremely puzzled by the liberal use of the word “song.” What does it mean, exactly? What is the criteria by which we judge newer death metal bands that is simply assumed for the older? Are we just invoking nostalgia on our own parts, or are we attempting for something semi-objective?
Songwriting: how does it work?
Learn to make your bed properly and then shred on the guitar, girl! What a spoiled brat!