Topic: The Chit Chat Thread

@GirlVersusGame Lmao I went on a rant about my exp with shrooms and a movie that you weren't even talking about. Yeah, I never heard of the movie you speak of, so I immediately thought of The wall, pink floyd. The other one is an indie movie, or maybe I live in a cave, idk. Kingpin, Big Lebowski, dumb and dumber (all Jim carrey, he was a genius). Yes spies like us is a good 80's movie. Chevy and Akroyd were so good back in the day. Happy gilmour, notfor me. The only thing i ever wanted to do when seeing adam sandler is punch him in the face. Esp when he gets all amped up and obnoxious. Can't stand him tbh.

I'm a total music nerd. And I respect your taste in music and all musicians even if they are not my cup of tea. But I'm a Metal head first and foremost, even if I listen to literally everything. My motto is, "if it sounds good to your ears, then it is good,. Regardless of the genre or artist." People do a disservice to themselves by locking into one or two genre's and not keeping an open ear or mind with music. I find metal head's are guilty the most of this. Almost like if you listen to Metal you have to pound your chest and not get too mushy by listening to something that is light and far away from Metal. This is such a BS attitude to have. Cause at the end of the day, nobody cares if your CD collection contains Slayer along with Duran Duran right next to it. There's so much great stuff out there to listen. Its to the point now in 2026 soon, that there's an endless rabbit hole to fall down into youtube to find new music you never heard.

This, 100% this!
I'm also primarily metal, but will listen to anything I find interesting, regardless of genre. There are plenty of jazz, pop, r&b, industrial/synth and even a couple of country albums mixed in with my metal/rock records. It is very freeing not worrying about what other people think of the things I like, or me for liking them (which was a worry in my youth)

And I will follow up with saying "this, 100% this" right back out your my guy. You totally get it too. I love electronic synth music, choice pop/r&b. The video game Hotline Miami 2, has some of the greatest electronic synth music in it. Far from metal, but soooo good. Forza horizon series has some great synth in it too.

I'm not very good, but have played some guitar since I was in my 20's. So i have a "muscianship view" of all music, that opens my ears further. An appreciation regardless of genre. For example, being a Metal Head, most people would laugh if they knew I loved the song "rio" by duran duran. But if you listen to that song and single out the bass line, its abso genius. That bass line is incredibly difficult to play. If you listen to that bass line in isolated track form on youtube, it sounds like it could be placed in any Rush song. Sounds like Geddy lee and on his level. So being a metal head, why would I want to tether myself to just Metal and Rock, when a pop 80's classic has such amazing musicianship in it?

@StitchJones It's funny you mention Duran Duran, as they were instrumental (pun absolutely intended) in me learning to stop worrying about what other people thought. When "The Wedding Album" came out, a friend in the "heavy rock" circle at school - I was probably seventeen at the time - said that it was probably one of the best albums he'd heard that year and almost everyone of the rest of us admitted that we also liked it. After that, we found that many of us shared a love of other things that were considered "uncool" and that was from then on perfectly acceptable. The beauty of that experience was that it took away the fear of being an individual with individual likes and dislikes for most of us.
I could never live down that liked I Celine Dion, though, which we all joke about to this day, but I will, also to this day, vehemently defend her album "Unison" as one of the best pop albums of that time

@FuriousMachine Celine had vocal cords like no other. Journey is another band, even though they can be pretty metallic for an 80's rock band that I loved,. Because for my $$$ when you talk about range in vocal tones, Steve perry has got to be the greatest male singer in music. Its all subjective because music is an art form that revolves around personal taste and there are no GOATS, but to me personally Perry is the vocal GOAT.

Along with my motto of "if it sounds good then it is good, regardless of genre or artist" I also have a way of addressing what is knows as "guilty pleasures" You and me listening to Duran Duran, Celine, etc as metal heads, alot of people would label that as a guilty pleasure. That whole saying is gross to me. Guilty of what???? Guilty to who??? Therefore, whenever talking music with people, I personally rebranded it as "never feel guilty pleasure" lmao. I'm a music nerd and a general dork, don't mind me.

@StitchJones It might surprise you but I spent over a year on the road with various Metal bands (myself and MrPeanuts discussed Metal for maybe three days, we'd seen a lot of the same shows) and you mentioned Slayer too. I was friends with Tom's wife, she attends some of their shows because families have to go months without seeing each other. I looked up to her as a kind 'cool' influence because she was supporting her husband and going on tour. Most don't do that. Then we became friends on social media and her posts weren't exactly, well they were the opposite of the things Tjuz says. The last one was a kind of 'they get a whole month for this, where's our month?' I didn't know America had a Pride month. It really bothered me because Tom has said on documentaries like HeadBangers Journey 'nah God doesn't hate us all but it's a cool - lyric' then I thought 'okay but your wife hates this and that', I know the two aren't entirely connected but I just stopped listening to them after that.

I'd never seen anything like racism, etc in the Metal scene but then I only ever heard people discuss the music. Even Norwegian Black Metal bands like Satyricon were thing on stage and another off-stage. There were exceptions for bands like DragonForce, they love games so we talked games. If I went to Download or HellFest I didn't see much I think inclusion is the word. I've seen probably one hundred Metal bands live (I'm counting support like say Alestorm opening for a bigger band or someone less known for Children of Bodom) I think I said to Tjuz that it is a very male Dominated genre but it's also very missunderstood. I was able to remove gender and just see it as kids finding a way to express themselves. Like for example a moshpit, if you are in the press-pit you are right by it and the only thing separating you is security and a barrier. Any time I saw someone go down they were always picked back up. A boot hit me in the back of the head and the guy who's boot it was came up to me afterwards and was extremely apologetic.

They talked to me on the same level because we both understood the music and were kind of taken aback that I knew what I was talking about. I never ran into any trouble or issues at a Metal show, except maybe for Myles Kennedy and Slash. Slash is an absolutely wonderful person, I saw him sign CDs/etc for fans in the rain. But Charlie Sheen was on the tour and absolutely coked out of his mind, he was hanging over the balcony and making such a scene that the band stopped and had to ask him to stop. That's one of those nights you never forget because someone was making so much of a nuisance of themselves that the house lights came on and they were actually asked to stop. My opinion of him went downhill after that.

I've never seen the fans be the reason for trouble. Some of my favorite bands that come to mind would be probably Nightwish (old Nightwish) I'm checking my playlist. Kamelot, Sabaton, Rob Zombie, Breaking Benjamin, FlyLeaf, Skillet, Rammstein (my favorite live band for pyrotechnics) I kind of went off FiveFingerDeathPunch because their lead singer isn't a nice person and cares more about the money than the kids who pay to see his shows, and stopped listening to Kreator because their song 'Satan is Real' started getting a little too real, anything by Apocolyptica, Mudvayne, old Machine Head, old Fear Factory, SoilWork (Stabbing the Drama is excellent) some Ministry (their themes can be a bit much) Falling Reverse (they adapted and matured) pretty much any Symphonic or Melodic Metal band, then there's Core/MetalCore and Screamo with Underoath being one of my favorites, followed by maybe Thrice for Artist in the Ambulance (amazing album) Escape the Faith. I never could get that into Emo because it was a little too much of a downer, though My Chemical Romance is a huge exception and so was 30 Seconds to Mars until I realized what Jared Leto was really like. I tried to get into rap but had already heard too much Russian rap to bridge that gap, maybe Eminem if that counts.

@GirlVersusGame You have some great music experiences, very nice indeed. Metal Head Bangers journey was such a great doc. The highlight to me was Ronnie james Dio explaining how he was the first to become synonymous with doing the evil horns on your hand. When he said, "although, Gene Simmons would tell you that he invented it. But then again, Gene invented water and shoes and breathing, so...." lmao he must've had a beef with that guy. RIP Ronnie

@StitchJones Celine's biggest problem, in my opinion, was that she became very predictable and "samey" (at least until she joined Ryan Reynolds for a surprise Deadpool team-up).
A fun anecdote I love telling was me going into a record store back in the day and asking the guy behind the counter if they had the new Celine Dion album in (I don't remember which one it was, but I think maybe "Colour of Love", which I found very dull, unfortunately) and once he answered in the affirmative I asked him to pull it for me while I went to get another album from the shelves. That other album was "Gash" by UK industrial band Foetus. The guy behind the counter looked at me and winked and said "ah, one for the girlfriend and one for you, right?". His face when I said both were for myself - "does not compute" has never been written as clearly in a facial expression before or since! It took him a few moments and then he actually asked if I really meant to get the Foetus album and if I was aware of what kind of music it was. I still smile thinking about that exchange.

Journey never really made it into my circles back in the 80s and 90s, so I am woefully unfamiliar with their work, unfortunately, but I do agree with you when you say that GOAT is a very individual thing.

I also agree with you re.: "guilty pleasure" - I hate that term, for the exact same reasons you mention. I also strongly dislike it when someone claims something is "bad" simply because they don't like it. This applies to pretty much everything, but I feel most strongly (and encounter it most often) when it comes to music. I try to express my like or dislike for things by avoiding calling something "good" or "bad" without qualifying it with in a way that makes it clear that it is opinion based. I own my likes and dislikes and try to be mindful and respectful of other peoples tastes. They are of course completely wrong when they don't agree with me, but I feel I shouldn't make them feel bad about that. At least not too bad

@FuriousMachine @StitchJones just want to barge in and say, correct people are quite correct.

I was doing another post in the music thread yesterday but left it and didn't go back to whatever I was going to say about the weird spanning of genres that is the only way to truly satisfy the ear, heart and mind. But for me, I used to listen to (and play) a lot more metal, and i'm not sure why I don't really do that any more. Maybe I should rectify that. Do you still go for the classics, or are there new pretenders to the metal crown in the last few years that i'd be unaware of?

Anyway, I agree with both of your sentiments, and have always liked anything as long as it resonates with me (that is the only thing that matters, isn't it) Youth definitely plays a part in people limiting their tastes to fit in with the crowd they choose, but i'd always encourage breaking down those walls for people's own good.

For me, it is the human voice that is the instrument I focus on most when listening, as the real raw emotion is easier to hear through the voice than an instrument, in most cases. Plus it carries the lyrics, which I value immensely. Though some artists are that damn good that raw emotion can come through any instrument they wield! They are truly special performers in those cases.

The one thing i'm kind of opposite on is the playing/listening connection, so you say as you had learned to play it made you listen and focus on the music from that standpoint with an understanding of what was happening. But when I learned to play I ignored all technical aspects and just went by feeling, and I don't really enjoy breaking down music on a technical level. Although I can appreciate pure talent and the fact that (in my experience) 80% of musicians are wired that more analytical and technical way. I always found it a little harder to gel with musicians completely committed to the technical craft, however, as they do tend to have their rules that emotion sometimes cannot adhere to.

@FuriousMachine I would like to add a steady diet of grainy Emo to your diet to supplement your other tastes, muahaha. It must sound like it was recorded in a dank basement on the cheap, rather than be produced in a studio with a team working hard in the background on creating an "image" to sell, however.

Ah, but the genre doesn't really matter, give me any artist pouring out their guts on the stage from any era and it will most likely sound good to me. I'll look if I copied my music thread post to my clipboard somewhere, as I jotted down some wildly varying artists that popped up on my Spotify list that looks like about 5 different people were fighting over what to put on, so it might make for interesting reading

@FuriousMachine All very well said. The only thing I'll disagree with you is when it comes to fans having a "voice" for what they love and the need to shove it down everyone's throats, or the flip side of that is when they hate something then everyone else should hate it too.... I find that gaming is the most egregious by far. Over music, sports, everything. Only because gaming is much more synonymous with regularly visited websites, 99% of which have comment sections for these types of "pushers" to use their voice. Its much more few and far between, when a fan of a sport, musical band, movie etc seeks an outlet to give an opinion on those types of things. TBH, until we started busting out this music talk, I can't remember the last time I chatted about likes/dislikes in music with anyone. Prob my brother in law at thanksgiving, but he only asked me what I've been listening to lately.

Gaming is a whole other beast in this regard. Not only is the fanboyism stronger, its the type of media and entertainment where there is a huge $$$$ investment by the player. That said, if he/she dumped $500 into a console and $70 into a game and that game killed off their fave character, then ridiculous as it is, that person is most likely to rebel. I'm sure you know what I'm referring to. The proofs all in that pudding, in that one. lol

@Ravix "For me, it is the human voice that is the instrument I focus on most when listening, as the real raw emotion is easier to hear through the voice than an instrument, in most cases. "

Layne freaking Staley man. Layne Staley!!!! And I agree, unless you are Eddie Van Halen, a gernerational talent who's rythm playing is as complex as a guitar solo and you can tell he is speaking with emotion through his guitar, then the human voice holds the most emotion. 2nd for me would be piano. Piano is such a beautiful instrument. I think its the most versatile of all instruments just IMO. Why do i believe this? It ties in with what you are saying. The piano is the closest instrument that musician can make speak like a voice, with all that emotion. The lower register can be very doom and gloom. The mid register a mix of upbeat or melancholy. the upper register is bright and happier.

"Would?" and "I Stay Away" - goosebumps, man! AiC is a long standing favourite of mine, RIP Layne

@StitchJones You may be right about that being more prevalent in gaming than music. I don't really frequent many online communities and there are very rarely discussions about gaming with my IRL peeps, so I've never really noticed. I also feel that these forums are mostly people voicing their opinions rather than trying to force anything on you or make you feel bad about your opinion (at least these days), which is why I love coming here.

But yeah, I definitely know what you're talking about when it comes to "player entitlement" and the loud voicing of that entitlement if the devs dared to do something that didn't align with their opinion of what the devs should have done. That I see plenty of in the comments to the articles here, but I feel the forums are quite a bit more chill and mellow about these things.

@Ravix Emo never really clicked with me, at least not the most well known ones (which are the only ones I know). I fell more on the goth side of things, which is but a tiny distinction, I know, like Fields of the Nephilim and Sisters of Mercy, Type O Negative - which was more of a goth parody band, I guess - etc.
But throw out a few names that doesn't have the words "chemical" or "30 seconds" in them and I'll happily give them a try (I could even be persuaded on the "chemical" front, but "30 seconds" is hard pass for me, for the same reasons @GirlVersusGame mentions)

@StitchJones agreed, a well placed violin gets me too. I think a fully fleshed orchestra is particularly powerful, and can do the same overall job as a voice in some ways, as it is a collaborative effort that can realy convey a story and the emotion within. It is especially cool when different popular music acts (popular in metal, rock etc) use full advantage of an orchestra. A Biffy Clyro, a Serj Tankian, even Metallica were known for doing this back in the day, I guess. (No idea who originated the mixed act experience, tbh) and then there are bands like Muse that have those classical elements rooted within their overall style anyway. There's probably tonnes more examples but i'm rushing through this comment to get it posted 😅

@FuriousMachine "Would?" and "I Stay Away" - goosebumps, man! AiC is a long standing favourite of mine, RIP Layne "

Oh hell yeah. AIC is one my faves too. For my money, AIC were the kings of the Seattle scene. Soundgarden a close 2nd. But again, just IMO, cause its subjective. I feel like crap bringing this up cause its a tragedy that made that song this way, but if you want to talk about Layne using his voice for pure emotion, nothing punches you in the gut then "nutshell" live MTV unplugged.

Its because he was obv out of his mind at that point with the heroin, to the point that he probably knew there was no happy ending to his story. It all poured out in the vocals on that performance. And the song itself is about that struggle he was going through to begin with. You couple this all together and that performance is prob one of the most powerful, influential, sad but uplifting (depending on how you want to construe for your own use)....performances in music history.

Thats one of the beautiful things about music. The "how you want to construe for your own use" element. I think music by far produces the most surreal nostalgia out of any media form. Just IMO. Obv all song writers wrote the lyrics for what they mean to them. Its their story they told us. But since most of the time, the themes can be up to the imagination, we can paint the songs in our own way and personalize them to what we are feeling, or going through at the moment.

Movies cannot do this. They tell a story, we watch, we accept the visuals for what they were and how they were written/directed. Theyre purely story and visual. Music is all auditory, tells stories through the vocals and lyrics. The band is speaking its own kind of story through its tones, when the lyrics are not at center stage during a song. So much personality in music. It just hits you square in the feels like a song is a living, breathing entity. Don't mind me guys, i tend to ramble like a dork alot

@Ravix agreed. Orchestral music can be really great. i love going on youtube and finding metal versions of pop songs, or out in left field genre's. But then also doing the same in reverse. You can find metal songs in lighter form. There's this guy on youtube, his thing is converting Killswitch engage songs into piano pieces. Its quite nice too, because if you ever heard KE, they love to use very melodic intros, bridges etc along with the aggressive metal instrument implementation and growling by the singer, whether its Jesse or Howard, but they can also sing in a normal range.

@FuriousMachine "I also feel that these forums are mostly people voicing their opinions rather than trying to force anything on you or make you feel bad about your opinion (at least these days), which is why I love coming here."

Yes any place online will have a few bad apples that just seem angry at life. But honestly, in my short time on this site, I love it here. Many great people to talk to about everything. And we can debate things in games as adults. We can disagree and it doesn't turn all aggro. most the of time anyways lol. I was just an on looker on this site for many years. Never signed up. Just came here for the gaming news, since playstation will always be my primary and fave console to own. Then finally decided to join up and join the convo. glad i did

Oh, you're very welcome here, then. "One of us, one of us, gooble gobble, gooble gobble" 😅

Once again we agree 100% - I am ashamed to say that I've not listened to the unplugged album in a long while, but dug it out after reading your post last night, and yeah, that is intensely powerful. AiC are also my favourites from the Seattle grunge scene, though back in the day I was more swayed by Pearl Jam than anything else (at least grunge related - that time was the height of my Queensrÿche fan era). After Vitalogy I sort of fell off the Pearl Jam bandwagon, but AIC remained strong. I didn't come to Soundgarden until quite a bit later.

I love watching movies, I love reading books, but none of that has the same profound effect on me as music can have. Sure, every once in a while a movie or a book can be immensely impactful, but not as consistently stirring, rousing, emotionally transformative as music can be. And, as you say, music can be experienced on a deeply personal level while movies and books are typically only someone else's story.

I need to find that Killswitch Engage piano guy you mentioned, do you remember the name? I love Killswitch Engage (though I found their latest a little underwhelming - hopefully it will grow on me) and was set to see them live last Monday, but health issues prevented me from going. Caught them when they were last here, on their Atonement tour, and that was brilliant.

Happy you decided to join us fellow long-winded freaks here, it is a very civil and welcoming place, I think

[quote=FuriousMachine]

"Oh, you're very welcome here, then. "One of us, one of us, gooble gobble, gooble gobble" 😅

I appreciate that. There's just 3 things in life that I feel when I talk about them, I tend to really get into it and can talk someone's ear off and be annoying as F. Its Music, Video Games and Ice Hockey. lol The guy's name is Sean Townsend, I'll post a video here for you. I had to look him up myself, because its been a minute since the last time I've been to his page. His channel has been inactive for the last 6months, but he's got a ton of KSE songs to check out along some other bands you might like.

@StitchJones I'm going to add something KSE related in a moment and not leave it up for long.

[Images removed]

That's what I mean about being involved in Metal/Rock. Almost every band we mentioned last night I've photographed at least once if not multiple. It's a job for some and they need social media engagement/clout to get noticed and pay the bills so to speak. For me it's a hobby and because I'm in that PR side I can give myself press credentials/or move credits and copyright around. In the middle is KSE, the bottom left is Sabaton, the bottom right one of the Norwegian bands I mentioned. It started as still shots for music videos then I started getting tour invites. It can be a job like I said but every job I've had ruined seeing what I was doing as a hobby. I added blur etc, I don't want clout or a social media following but I do like shooting Metal. The lighting conditions, the speed, is all against you and I enjoy the challenge.

@FuriousMachine
@Ravix
I'm deleting this in about an hour if you want to see before I do.

@GirlVersusGame those shots are pretty epic if you ask me. the imagery really captures the esscence of what is happening in any given pic. You seem very talented at what you do. Good for you for possessing this talent and passion for it as well. That shot in the middle of the 1st collage, that is Jesse from KSE right? Regardless, I love that shot cause of the way the beams of light are captured coming from up top from the stage lighting. Its nice touches like that, that add to the overall feel. Sweet