Pearl Jam and Metal

[Jorge]

I enjoyed this

[Jorge]

I mean, I'm enjoying it. It's still playing.

[Heathen]

DSBM?

BM?...

don't go all Jorge on me

metal PJ:

I'm certainly not going to listen to 10 + minutes of THAT!!
... you want me to kill myself here at work or something?

that would be metal

I'm just having issues with all this attempted categorization of "What's Pearl Jam's music best described as?" - It's just rock music to me, or alternative rock music would be as much refinement as I'm willing to offer on that genre.

Way I see it, all the punk music and all the metal, and all the "other' rock out there has influenced this band throughout its career - pretty much like any band, I guess. And they've been producing music for 20 years or so now, so there's a wide range of examples that can be picked and chosen to demonstrate that influence over the course of their career - sometimes it's straight up rock and roll, sometimes it punk, sometimes it leans closer to metal (although not much in my opinion, but whatever) - the best parts of the musical product of Pearl Jam is that it has a desire to wander around from influence to influence and experiment with it to try to come up with something worth listening to - and sometimes they fail miserably and sometimes they don't but I have a hard time classifying any of it as one specific type/genre/sub-genre/ anything.

it's fairly impressive how long the discussions can extend here about it though - but man... sometimes.... just... a bullet to the head emoticon is the only comment I can make.

oh yeah I hear you

[Jorge]

Still playing.

[malice]

DSBM?

BM?...

don't go all Jorge on me

metal PJ:

I'm certainly not going to listen to 10 + minutes of THAT!!
... you want me to kill myself here at work or something?

that would be metal

i do what i can

[Jorge]

I really liked that, BadMusic. I even tweeted it.

[Heathen]

I really liked that, BadMusic. I even tweeted it.

For a second I thought you were the KGB president

[Jorge]

I am.

[harmless]

All this talk of MYM being either Punk, or Metal, or a hybrid of both (crossover?), got me thinking: what metal credentials, if any, do Pearl Jam have? I know McCready is a fan of Maiden, Motorhead, KISS, Ozzy, Sabbath; and Jeff is into Venom, Hellhammer, Slayer, Mastodon. Given their background, I am surprised of the lack of very few true metal moments in PJ’s catalog. The closest they got was probably the breakdown in Supersonic, which was very Sabbathy. Any thoughts, opinions? Any other examples of quasi metal moments appearing in their music?

The most 'Metal' they ever got was on Ten ('Once', 'Why Go', 'Deep' etc.) and Vs. ('Go', 'Animal', 'Blood') and Vitalogy. If we're talking classic heavy metal, we have Mike's influence on MYM and on STBC, etc. But other than that, the most metal / alternative influence was brought by Dave A., and hasn't been part of the band since he left.

[surfndestroy]

I don't see anything even close to metal about Pearl Jam. They've never enjoyed excess of any sort. Excess of drugs, girls, double bass drums, anything really. In a different band, Dave A. could have been metal.

[harmless]

Since when did 'metal' have to necessarily mean excess of anything other than loud guitars? Some people in this thread seem to be stuck in the metal-as-schtick thing as opposed to metal as a genre of music.

[surfndestroy]

Since when did 'metal' have to necessarily mean excess of anything other than loud guitars? Some people in this thread seem to be stuck in the metal-as-schtick thing as opposed to metal as a genre of music.

Metal is all about excess. Gratuitous solos, excessive light shows, excessive volume. In general, a more is better attitude. That is so not Pearl Jam.

[harmless]

Since when did 'metal' have to necessarily mean excess of anything other than loud guitars? Some people in this thread seem to be stuck in the metal-as-schtick thing as opposed to metal as a genre of music.

Metal is all about excess. Gratuitous solos, excessive light shows, excessive volume. In general, a more is better attitude. That is so not Pearl Jam.

I don't understand. Pearl Jam hasn't got an everything-in-excess metal 'schtick', which doesn't mean that some of their (audible) musical influences aren't metal. I don't think you have to have an everything-in-excess attitude to have metal in your sound. You're being a bit 'all or nothing' about this.

[darth_vedder]

[MadTIGERmaN]

Metal...

Grunge was like 60's rock... it took the best of what was out there, and made it their own thing...
and it pisses some metal fans off to no end that Grunge killed hair bands!

[harmless]

Metal still exists, grunge doesn't. Except it's pretty different now to the stuff most people in this thread are referring to as metal.

[MadTIGERmaN]

Metal still exists, grunge doesn't. Except it's pretty different now to the stuff most people in this thread are referring to as metal.

Grunge never did exist... the big 4 (PJ/SG/AnC/and N) they all blended different types of musics... some metal, some punk, some classic rock, tossed it in a bucket full of Rust from uncle Neil... and out came a new sound... 3 of those bands are still around.

Metal? the min you stray too far from your "metal-ness" or do something the Gods of metal deem, unmetal... well, just ask Metallica how great it is to be a "metal" band lol

Im glad PJ never was a metal band... it gave them much more freedom to do what they want to do instead of trying to please the Gods of Metal... so metal!

RUST NEVER SLEEPS

[Jorge]

Since when did 'metal' have to necessarily mean excess of anything other than loud guitars? Some people in this thread seem to be stuck in the metal-as-schtick thing as opposed to metal as a genre of music.

Metal is all about excess. Gratuitous solos, excessive light shows, excessive volume. In general, a more is better attitude. That is so not Pearl Jam.

I see what you mean, but I think there are all kinds of metal subgenres and not all of them are about excess.

[harmless]

Metal still exists, grunge doesn't. Except it's pretty different now to the stuff most people in this thread are referring to as metal.

Grunge never did exist... the big 4 (PJ/SG/AnC/and N) they all blended different types of musics... some metal, some punk, some classic rock, tossed it in a bucket full of Rust from uncle Neil... and out came a new sound... 3 of those bands are still around.

Metal? the min you stray too far from your "metal-ness" or do something the Gods of metal deem, unmetal... well, just ask Metallica how great it is to be a "metal" band lol

Im glad PJ never was a metal band... it gave them much more freedom to do what they want to do instead of trying to please the Gods of Metal... so metal!

RUST NEVER SLEEPS

Yeah, I've heard all of the "Grunge didn't exist" arguments and I don't buy 'em. It did exist, and it was an amalgamation of all those styles and traditions. Just because it was a mishmash of sounds, doesn't mean it didn't exist. It's not the perfect word but it's the only one we have to unify those bands in terms of music and geography. Just my opinion, yo.

[Fsfang2]

All this talk of MYM being either Punk, or Metal, or a hybrid of both (crossover?), got me thinking: what metal credentials, if any, do Pearl Jam have? I know McCready is a fan of Maiden, Motorhead, KISS, Ozzy, Sabbath; and Jeff is into Venom, Hellhammer, Slayer, Mastodon. Given their background, I am surprised of the lack of very few true metal moments in PJ’s catalog. The closest they got was probably the breakdown in Supersonic, which was very Sabbathy. Any thoughts, opinions? Any other examples of quasi metal moments appearing in their music?

The most 'Metal' they ever got was on Ten ('Once', 'Why Go', 'Deep' etc.) and Vs. ('Go', 'Animal', 'Blood') and Vitalogy. If we're talking classic heavy metal, we have Mike's influence on MYM and on STBC, etc. But other than that, the most metal / alternative influence was brought by Dave A., and hasn't been part of the band since he left.

I completely agree with this. Dave definitely has a more metal background then Jack or Matt.