[Toilet & Bowels]

we used to be the best at it, now we are crap.

[Toilet & Bowels]

japan or america probably, france, sweden and norway are all good too. there is some good heavy music in the england at the moment, but it's not like it used to be.

[Toilet & Bowels]

well to my knowledge there just isn't that much of it about, not in london anyway. what i mean is that there are no good new young bands playing heavy music, there are plenty of old guys doing it though.

[porkmarras]

Shouldn't that be 'What happened to a lot of good rock music played by young people in Britain'?Unless we talk about the more electronic fringes of music,it seems to me that a lot of youngsters forgot how to rock out in general.

[Toilet & Bowels]

yeah, and the electronic fringes are so fickle and prone to fads and genre based tribalism. there's no almost no cross over between any of the various electronic styles, even though they are all so closely related, and clubs are so segregated in their musical styles.

[sonicl]

I think that British youth probably forgot how to rock out some time in the mid-80's, under the influence of Morrissey, and not even grunge was able to alter that. The kids seem to want to be rock animals (witness all the kids on the High Street wearing rock band logos on their hoodies), but the ones who want to make music all seem to want to be derivative of Brit-Pop.

The Smiths begat The Stone Roses begat Oasis begat too many simpering indie bands to mention. Making music seems to be a career option these days, not an art form.

[porkmarras]

To me the young British musician seems all too often stuck into the hedonistic and aesthetic aspects of making music that inevitably have serious repurcussions on the finished product if music skills are not backing all those things up.Sad but true.

[Toilet & Bowels]

Originally Posted by Toilet & Bowels

yeah, and the electronic fringes are so fickle and prone to fads and genre based tribalism. there's no almost no cross over between any of the various electronic styles, even though they are all so closely related, and clubs are so segregated in their musical styles.

what i mean is that every few years a new style pops up and it's amazing for a while but these scenes cut themselves off from everything else, and then just start to regurgitate themselves endlessly. like drum n bass did and grime looks set to do.

[Iain]

I saw a clutch of quite heavy bands the other week. They were mostly of the stoner rock persuasion but they were quite heavy.

[Toilet & Bowels]

Originally Posted by porkmarras

To me the young British musician seems all too often stuck into the hedonistic and aesthetic aspects of making music that inevitably have serious repurcussions on the finished product if music skills are not backing all those things up.Sad but true.

this is true, you don't seem to get young english musicians who are actually prepared to put any work in. and i think the club scene is ultimately detrimental to the progress of music.

[RdTv]

Well said sonicl.

In response to who is making the best heavy music, I'd say Japan>US>Europe in general.

I chose Japan (other than the obvious reason of them just having more quality groups and artists) because they seem to have been making great noise/heavy/excellent music for a long time, I mean really a long time. the artists are prolific (granted most of the artisits in the ''heavy'' genre are) and seem to spin many side projects and what not.

[Toilet & Bowels]

Originally Posted by Iain

I saw a clutch of quite heavy bands the other week. They were mostly of the stoner rock persuasion but they were quite heavy.

were they good?

[sonicl]

Birmingham is, of course, the exception to the rule, and continues to be a haven for makers of heavy music.

OT - No, Morrissey isn't going to be our Eurovision entry, the BBC didn't want him. They do, however, seem to want the guy who used to sing in The Darkness. Which in turn brings us back on topic.

[Iain]

They were quite good, yes. I don't know what they would have sounded like on record but it was nice to see live, if a tad generic. The bands were these:

 

Space in the 50s were a bit rubbish and Infants were more of a spazzy Arab on Radar type thing but the other two bands were quite heavy. Manatees only played about 20-25 minutes but were really good. They had all three members bashing drums at the end which was ace.

[porkmarras]

I was just chatting to someone a few weeks ago about how being spot on about the critical development of music in general can really affect the way you play music because you'll risk analizing things way too much when it comes to performing.I see it as pre-emptying things before you do them rather than while you're doing them.

[sonicl]

I've seen Capricorns (myspace.com/capricornsoflondon), who were pretty excellent, and Una Corda(myspace.com/unacorda), who were okay but a bunch of wankers. Both of them were instrumental metal bands, although Una Corda veered quite a bit towards post-rock from time to time.

[porkmarras]

Did you see Capricorns at The Underworld?I saw them there a few years ago when they had this metal all-dayer but i assumed they were American and pretty good they were too.

[sonicl]

I did, yes. They were supporting Jesu, and were much more interesting than the headliners.

I was going to mention The Underworld as another haven of UK heavy music actually.

[porkmarras]

I saw a spectacular performance by Oxbow in there.They were gigantic, maaaannnn!!

[jimbrim]

You should of named the thread 'what happened to 'good' heavy music in england', at the moment theres 'too many' young metalcore bands around and its starting to get tedious