metal drum and bass

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recently there have been a proliferation of tracks using metal elements in drum and bass tracks. personally i quite like it. notable examples are 'pack of wolves' by nightbreed and 'archangel' by kc. also concord dawn dabbled in it. so what do people think about this? is it pure novelty or an interesting new aspect to drum and bass production? for me it highlighted the similarity in ferocity and pace of d&b and metal. what's your thoughts ilm...?

― myke boomnoise (myke boomnoise), Monday, 17 May 2004 18:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Having not heard these tracks, my curiosity is piqued (peaked?) How exactly are the metal elements used? Big power chords or something? I thought the whole notion behind drum'n'bass (and I might be entirely wrong -- please excuse me if so) was that is was purposely Spartan (i.e. limited almost exclusively to drum and bass).

The first song that popped into my head, though, when reading this was a portion of the middle-eight of "Perfect Drug" by Nine Inch Nails, wherein some LIVE drums (courtesy of Chris Vrenna, I believe) replicate the drum'n'bass-y rhythmic pattern....to rocktastic oomphy effect.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 17 May 2004 18:51 (twenty-two years ago)

I agree it sort of does go against the ethos of drum and bass but leaving puritanical issues aside I find this stuff very interesting. Probably because it contravenes classic drum and bass production.

For me there seems to be two instances of use: i) as a big sampled chunk fleshed out with d&b and sampled (from metal) drums and touched up with a little added bass. This is the case for the kc track. ii) the nightbreed track seems to be far more carefully constructed. It uses the structure of drum&bass but, to my ears, uses entirely metal sounds. If it wasn’t on a d&b comp I would think twice before calling it that. It could easily be played in a metal club and the kids would dig it.

I am of the opinion that drum and bass has reached a point where the good stuff is produced so tightly and to such high standards that the sound is almost becoming homogenous in terms of quality. This is why I am finding the use of metal in the genre beguiling to say the least.

Other genres having been absorbing elements on d&b for years and I am curious to see, if this takes off, the genre incorporating other styles.

― myke boomnoise (myke boomnoise), Monday, 17 May 2004 19:05 (twenty-two years ago)

anyone remember that hive track that sampled bad brains?

to later be found on monday night football segues?

― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 17 May 2004 19:06 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm intrigued. I'll seek out those tracks, Myke and report back.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 17 May 2004 19:06 (twenty-two years ago)

"Ain't Talkin' Bout Dub" by Apollo 440 might fit the bill here, no?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 17 May 2004 19:07 (twenty-two years ago)

I thought this was going to be about metal bands incorporating dn'b (which I have heard a fair amount of). This sounds more interesting though, maybe I'll actually be able to download those tracks.

Alex, that break in a Perfect Drug is fantastic, at the time I hoped that's what his whole next album would sound like. I believe Trent sampled the live drums and then cut them up for maximum effect.

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 17 May 2004 19:11 (twenty-two years ago)

That "Pack of Wolves" track sounds like it could be an Al Jourgensen remix of Anthrax from the late '80s! I can see it going down a storm in a goth/industrial club (assuming such things still exist). But not much by way of interesting breaks, just the typical techstep loop and a few metal tom-tom fills...

― Sean Thomas (sgthomas), Monday, 17 May 2004 19:15 (twenty-two years ago)

we can also talk about metal using drum and bass and the crosspollination of the two genres in general. Re: Apollo 440 - yeah that’s an early example but d&b lite really. also check 'raining blood' by concord dawn and for an interesting subtle example ‘the sands’ by silent witness (a metal named d&b act!) i can't for the life of me remember the name of that hive track.

― myke boomnoise (myke boomnoise), Monday, 17 May 2004 19:17 (twenty-two years ago)

I can see it going down a storm in a goth/industrial club (assuming such things still exist

Oh, they still exist. For some of my friends, they exist every single weekend. I'll mention that track to the ones who dj there, in fact.

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 17 May 2004 19:17 (twenty-two years ago)

actually i don't thinking i'm thinking of the right silent witness track there. sorry.

i would love to hear that pack of wolves track in a club. oh boy.

― myke boomnoise (myke boomnoise), Monday, 17 May 2004 19:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, it'd be interesting to see the audience reaction: in the absence of genre-night clues ("if it's Thursday it must be techstep!"), I'd think most people would either throw ironic devil hands or just full-out mosh -- it's not really a natural one to skank to.

― Sean Thomas (sgthomas), Monday, 17 May 2004 19:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Or they might just sit down and order cheap red wine.

Or stomp dance really fast.

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 17 May 2004 19:50 (twenty-two years ago)

there's a dylan remix of "master of puppets". it's not very good.

this whole thing was bound to happen sooner or later because whenever you find a folder on slsk chockablock with nu-dnb, there's always a mess of metal/extreme/noise crap in their too.

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Monday, 17 May 2004 20:12 (twenty-two years ago)

(ha ha remember when dnb was FUNKY wait what? who are you men? where are you taking me?)

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Monday, 17 May 2004 20:13 (twenty-two years ago)

what about the end record on ipecac? i still can't figure out what to make of that one. certainly the most interesting terrible record i've heard this year.

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Monday, 17 May 2004 20:22 (twenty-two years ago)

weren't the members of concord dawn in a metallica covers band in high school? andrew/mr mime to thread!

& even back in '01 (in DUNEDIN!) there was a fairly big bogans-into-d'n'b thing (+ also blah blah teen males xtreme "underground" music blah)

― etc, Monday, 17 May 2004 20:53 (twenty-two years ago)

it all basically sounds like gabba with breaks these days anyway

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Monday, 17 May 2004 20:54 (twenty-two years ago)

When just about everyone agrees that the best drum 'n bass AND metal is the loose, crappy sounding, wild, organic, "straight-outta-da-basement" stuff, why are all these crossovers taking the rigid, shiny, calculated, industrial-style approach, which is obviously doomed from the start?

― Siegbran (eofor), Monday, 17 May 2004 21:07 (twenty-two years ago)

the Hive track was Ultrasonic Sound. i don't mind the KC 12" at all, it's linear to the point of being a headbanger (which is better than the middling sort of linearity most tracks go for) and that can be nice in the mix.

― ryan kuo (ryan kuo), Monday, 17 May 2004 22:54 (twenty-two years ago)

"it all basically sounds like gabba with breaks these days anyway"

Sadly OTM (and not even as remotely as interesting as the Praxis-axis was at doing this nearly TEN years ago.)

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 00:34 (twenty-two years ago)

so is the consensus dud then? i dunno. i'm not saying that it's the most inventive thing ever but just quite interesting in the current d&b climate

― myke boomnoise (myke boomnoise), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 00:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Dude, like, "Come to Daddy"

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Tuesday, 18 May 2004 00:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Does Amon Tobin using Slayer samples in his end-of-show closer count? I liked that.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 01:00 (twenty-two years ago)

i think it can be effective, but not particularly interesting by any means. the new Graphic and Sileni stuff, now that's interesting.

― ryan kuo (ryan kuo), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 01:02 (twenty-two years ago)

First things first: "Drum 'n' Bass" is one of the most useless, inadequate terms for any musical subgenre EVER: What kind of dance music isn't dominated by bass and drums for chrissakes?! And wasn't the stuff originally known as "hardcore/jungle" when it first started to appear a decade ago? (A better, more distinctive term, albeit arguably less PC.) Or is that even the same style of music? (Excuse my ignorance.) Big dub-reggae basslines combined with accelerated double-speed drum tracks is what I hear in my head when I encounter the term bass 'n drum. If I've gotten that wrong, again, please excuse my ignorance.

Having "cleared" that up, I have no problem with bass 'n drum incorporating elements of metal. To reject ANY sound outright is just bigotry. Even the most sonically impoverished instrument in existence (flute, in my opinion) can be a wondrous tool in the hands (lips) of someone with imagination (like Roland Kirk or Eric Dolphy or whoever.) If any artist wants to liven things up by adding fuzz guitars or simulated gunshots or backwards bagpipe loops, fine with me! Where would we be had someone not combined peanut butter and chocolate? Whether or not this mixture is worth listening to is entirely the listener's decision. Whether or not such a mixture could still be considered clinical bass 'n drum is for the creator and the critic (and the jerk who gave it such a stupid name) to fight over.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 01:12 (twenty-two years ago)

There's very little dub in current d&b. Even the stuff with explicit dub influences (like the Digital/Spirit axis) won't use actual dub basslines because the groove is now far to fast even when the bassline at half-speed. All the basslines now are basically single-riff slabs of dark bass noise on repeat, unless it's softer D&B in which case the bass sounds like a sped-up "Pulp Fiction".

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 01:18 (twenty-two years ago)

The Concord Dawn thing is called Raining Blood. It even has little meedly meedly meedly bits way up on the top strings, which still makes me laugh when I listen to it. Novelty value but that's about it.

I think d'n'b is best when it pulls back the stops though... the new Shapeshifter LP has a lovely track with Joe Dukie of Fat Freddy's Drop fame on vocals, I think it's called Land of the Long White Cloud.

― damian_nz (damian_nz), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 02:05 (twenty-two years ago)

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metal drum and bass - C or D