blackened

JESUS - I WAS ONLY TRYING TO LIGHTEN THE MOOD MYSELF! I cannot be bothered responding any more - you've made your point. You think we're shit - fair enough - don't come see us again! We were out of practice I admit - and this has been our first gig in a few months due to personal circumstances - and I'm sorry we ruined your evening. We will definitely file this under experience, and make sure everything is tip-top when we head back your way. Criticism is always good - it keeps us on our toes, but I thought that you were going to quite extreme lengths to prove your utter dislike of us. I cannot say any more - and I don't want to, because I am fed up of it. Anyway, our lead guitarist has asked me post his response - and our drummer says thanks to mouse for his comments - much appreciated! Tav's note "We were right at the front...at the barrier. Its not that the solos "weren't quite right" it was the fact that they went like this "3 notes....pause...pause...2 notes...ermmm how does it go?.....oh I'll just waggle the whammy bar....phew!" I have to assume this note was referring to the Blackened solo which admittedly I did fuck up, I basically lost my place leading up to the solo and couldnt really hear where we were in the song but regards to the whammy bar I only use it twice in the whole set and the ironic thing is that the whammy bar part of blackened was one of the few things I did right in the solo. So by all means slag me off for that solo. Regards to the latter two songs which I think were Battery and Whiplash my first two fingers on my left hand just ceased to move. I just couldnt move them at all which I have never experienced before. Some songs I do improvise like Seek & Destroy and Whiplash but as for the others they are pretty much how they are on the album but no doubt there were some mistakes but to say that no solos were any where near close is just horse shit. I suppose practice makes perfect so when youre in a tribute band there are no excuses (apart from my fingers ceasing); I mean if Colin McRae had the shits you would hardly expect him to win the race. J

And Merry Christmas to you too, Tav. Sweetie.

Okay here's another post, but from our drummer, who is taking issue with some of the more unconstructive comments: I have only just become aware of this forum which is why my response is late; apologies for that. I came away from Aberdeen with a really positive buzz from the crowd; I really enjoyed the gig and felt that the majority of the crowd did too, but maybe I was wrong. In response to 'Tav's' comments, my first question to you is do you play the drums, or have a decent knowledge of rock/metal drumming or even musical theory? I'm not trying to sound patronizing, I only ask as some of your comments have left me totally confused. You complain that a lot of the set 'appeared' (come on Tav, either it was or it wasn't) to be in standard beats. Well Tav you may be surprised to find that a lot of rock/metal is in standard 4/4. One of the reasons that I love Metallica is that they also throw in other time signatures to add a layer of complexity to many of the songs, but still the majority is in 4/4. Let's look at some of the songs we played. For example if you look at Master of Puppets, the vast majority of the song is in 4/4, i.e the whole song is in 4/4 apart from every 4th bar in the verse (5/8 time) and a few other bars in the chorus and interlude which are in 2/4. Off the top of my head, the ENTIRETY of For Whom the Bell Tolls (bar a couple of bars at the very end of the song in 2/4), Enter Sandman, Creeping Death (technically the end of this song is in free time), So What and Whiplash is in 4/4. Conversely, Blackened is largely in 6/4 and 7/4 with the odd 5/8, 5/4, 3/4 and 2/4 bar thrown in. However, the interlude, chorus and guitar solo (to a degree) are in 4/4. I could go on but perhaps you can now see why I am bemused; if the majority of the music is actually in 4/4 and I reproduce this, playing in different time signatures only when Metallica have put them in their songs (sounds like a good idea to me) and not all over the place, it seems unfair to complain about it. Basically, what I am saying is the question should be did we play (perfectly or not) the same riffs/drums as Metallica do? Yes we did. You can't ask for accurate reproductions and then complain about it. Perhaps what you meant by standard beats was that there weren't enough fills or that the fills were not accurate (though inaccurate and unfair, this would make slightly more sense)? Also, what is a 'sly china hit'? Am I supposed to hit it when no one is looking? Seriously though, I have tried to reproduce the drum tab from the albums (throwing in a bit of the variations that Lars plays live) as accurately as I can. I bought the drum tab books to this end, and I believe that I do this. I can assure you that I do not play less or even different fills to Lars (for the most part that is; I'm not overly anal on songs such as So What or Last Caress). Some bands do try to cut corners and will play an easier variation of a section of music (shit, even Metallica have done this on occasion when playing live), but I (and Blackened as a whole) have made a concerted effort not to do this where possible. I can assure you that we do not play simplified variations, or that Lars plays anything more technical than I. Now please don't get me wrong, I am most definitely not claiming to be some great drummer without fault; far, far from it my friend. It's just that the faults you have highlighted seem, to me, to be baseless. I thought to myself is it worth replying to this and I guess I did for three reasons; 1. personal pride 2. simply because it is my opinion that you are wrong in most of your specific complaints against us and 3. confusion. I do not want Blackened to get a bad reputation on that basis; I do hope that some of the people who did enjoy the show even out the bias (maybe 'trend' is a better word) in this thread a little. To imply that the people who did enjoy the show were either too pissed to notice or not as musically knowledgeable as you (gullible punters Frosty Jacks words) is both slightly arrogant and insulting to the crowd. I'd be the first to admit that I do not have the immense personality of Lars (Im not actually Lars you know), but I do try to play the songs that I love, to the best of my ability. I mess up more often than Id like (that comes with the territory), but I (and we) don't cut corners. As has already been noted, some of the other comments are equally unjust. I'll just touch on a few of these at random in order to save space. For example, the impression given of the solos is, to be kind, a somewhat massively over-exaggerated account of any errors. Also 'Mouse', to complain that we only played half of Am I Evil is absurd when you take into account that we only had a one hour slot. If we had played the full version then we would have had to cut something else short (probably a song written by Metallica). I'm sure you know that bands have to make decisions like that. If we had a two and a half hour set, as Metallica do (who incidentally do play medleys i.e they cut some songs short), then we could have played more. You couldnt hear the bassist? Well blame the sound engineer then. Finally, to complain that the singer swore and sounded too macho (have you ever heard James live? He doesn't talk like Hugh Grant! You do know that right?) seems bizarre to me. You have my sincere apologies that you did not enjoy the gig and feel you wasted your money (possibly not helped by walking out before Motorheadache played), but it seems to me that the criticism was way over the top. I get the impression that you would not have been completely satisfied even if it had been Metallica up on stage. We don't mind criticism (whether we agree with it or not); it's a great way to learn how to improve (and sure, there's plenty of room for improvement), but when we don't agree with the criticism, and it has been made so strongly in a public forum, I'm sure you will appreciate that we have to respond. That is not 'throwing the toys out of the pram'. I really would appreciate a response on this. In what way was our performance of Enter Sandman sub-standard? Which songs did I play too slowly? ETC... If you could be kind enough to take the time (maybe you feel you've wasted enough as it is) to be more specific then we could at least work on improving these "mistakes". The main point I've learnt so far is that I need to do some crazy jazz-funk drumming or something similar next time (and be out of time with the rest of the band) to please Tav; who cares about sticking to the Metallica score anyway? I'm probably failing in my attempts to mix some humour in, so I'll end by saying thank you for taking the time to read this essay. Look on the bright side; at least reading this didn't cost you a penny! P.S it's not our fault you had to pay 9; we didn't bloody see much of it and after a round trip of 1200km only just about broke even

First of all - I am not saying people shouldn't post criticism if they didn't like a band! I do believe Tav's reaction to be quite an extreme opposite to the reaction we got from the crowd. Sure, we have played one or two gigs in the past where we reeked and knew it, and we could tell from the crowd's reaction. But this one we really enjoyed, everyone seemed up for it, and we responded to them by giving them a lot of energy, and i for one would rather fuck stuff up and put on a lively show, than bury my head in the guitar. Sorry for all those who expect everything note-perfect, but hey, even Metallica fuck their parts up! Another thing that gets my goat up is people commenting who weren't even there; who are basically responding, and in a way, supporting the bad comments. Also, I agree that there is a difference between tributes and cover bands, but what other Metallica tribute bands have you seen? Okay, maybe Tav offered bits of constructive criticism, but I thought it was very extreme, and basically boils down to him not wanting to pay 9 to see two bands, one of which he missed. Please remember, WE DO NOT SET THIS! I had punters coming up to me afterwards saying they would have paid 9 alone just to see us!!! I don't want to say that one person's opinion is better than another's, but remember, there were a lot of opinions floating around that gig no doubt. But this thread is dominated by an extremely negative reaction from one or two people, with agreement from others, some who weren't there. This isn't reflective of the crowd reaction as a whole. Both Motorheadache and ourselves were having problems with the sound all night, ie. monitoring issues, not being able to hear each other, which would obviously have an effect on anyone's performance. I personally was able to hear the drums and my guitar and vocals, and it sounded pretty good to me onstage. However, we did get a minidisc of it, and I have listened to it back, and I must say that the sound you were getting out there was shoddy, and no way near the sound we usually get!!! I apologise for a shit sound, but it wasn't us behind the mixing desk!! Yet more excuses, I know...

Cheers for your comments OUSY!!! I totally agree!

I wish you had missed it too! I was actually quite shocked by these comments, as the response and comments we got at the venue were totally far away from these garbled rantings. Look, you are entitled to your opinion - as is everyone, most of the time - but I don't see why you have such a vendetta against us! I was surprised at the ticket price, and apologies for expectations were raised, but this price is set by the venue, and not by us! We admit there were hiccups in the set, attributed to problems with onstage monitoring, smoke machine cutting out my guitar, but we went out there to have fun, play some metal, and I believe the bulk of the crowd were happy and showed it! If some people wanna just stand at the back and bitch about the solos not being just quite right, then we can't help that - we can't please everyone! We came offstage and mingled with the crowd once we played, and there were plenty of people who came up to us, with excellent comments of appreciation. We also don't claim to be the UK's finest Metallica tribute! This is the opinion of Rob of Motorheadache, who was happy to let us support them. I believe with tribute bands, there is an issue of compromise to a certain extent - we aim to reproduce the stuff as faithfully as we can, but we also want to give a performance, and not just stand there solely concentrating on our instruments without looking out into the crowd. If all you want to do is nit-pick then be my guest, but you won't really achieve anything with unconstructive criticism. If you're in a band, especially a tribute band, then you know you can't please everyone. With Metallica fans, you get the ones who play guitar who want to debate the ass off a solo, you get the old-school fans who moan if you play Sad But True, you get the younger fans who bitch if we don't play St. Anger material. We just go out there and do what we do, and our impression we got from the Lemon Tree crowd was that the majority of people there were well into it, and with us all the way!!! If you don't like it, then I don't see what we are supposed to do about it. Anyway, thanks to your comments, I don't think we'll be invited back to the Lemon Tree, which is a shame because we had a great time, only managing to break-even once we took into account the costs of travelling 400 miles and back to play a one-hour set. In response to specific comments - we only "play bit of songs" - have you ever seen Metallica live, or seen the videos? They experiment, improvise, do medleys off stuff themselves! Also, considering we played for just an hour, give us a fucking break! Also, about the 4/4 drumming? That is just fucking bollocks! You can't do the instrumental bit of Blackened in 4/4 - open your ears man! We have the drum-tab book - we know! As I said before, we were well-looking forward to coming back there and doing another show, then you could get a proper impression of what we are about. Unfortunately though, due to your bitching and moaning, this is in doubt. If we did come back, I think it would be best if you saved your hard-earned pennies, and just went and bought the CD. Goddamnit it just goes to show you can't please everyone!