VR live

[Jeff Albertson]

What a boring band.

Bingo! That's my take too. That dude peaked in the early 90's and has been in a tail spin since the Snakepit days.

I caught him last on the last VR tour and the only thing that came to mind was "What a fuckin Hack".

There was a day when that dude would command a stage and play a righteous solo. Maybe it was somewhere between "the look mom I'm junkie daze" and the "Axel don't love me no more present". GnR was nothing short of great one day. It's almost frikin sad to what that ex-crackhead festival of medicrity limp around on a stage. I'm suprised there wasn't a clip of him yawning. That must have gotten edited out.

Gezus krist...I don't even want to comment of the wasted lump of scuzzy goo that Scott Weiland is and always was. He's not even worth the heroin residue in his crap.

Another weak attempt at selling the past. You name it.....music, gear, tee-shirsts. When it comes to Slash, the story ends with me putting im into the wall.

[horns666]

Blue Cheer or Iron Butterfly (In-A-Gadda-Da-Vidda) or even Led Zeppelin (Communication Breakdown).... made the foundation of heavy metal... but aren't actually concidered one... Sabbath defined what metal is with more darker sound and vibe.

that being said... hairbands... I don't ever concider them metal.... hell even the members in RATT said they aren't metal. To me it's 80's hard rock.
Some Hairbands did have a lot of metal elements (like palm muted guitar riffs). Early Motley Crue had a lot of metal elements... but they also had a lot of punk in their music too. They could be easily called a punk band then.
Early RATT had some metal-ish riffs, but the later era.... hmmm can't hear any metal at all. Is Bon Jovi metal in any way?
Or what about those street-glam sleaze bands. Like G'N'R or Faster Pussycat. Zero metal in their music. Skid Row was metal when they gave out their 2nd album.
It's a subgenre under even bigger picture called ROCK. It's not necessary to but everything under the label metal. When it's hard to define something.... it's rock.
Van Halen (who are concidered classic rock or hard rock everywhere) gave birth to hair metal... while tons of hair bands were copying Van Halen's sound and some were even softer sounding than VH but still are concidered metal then it's weird as VH isn't metal.

Some folks started using the term Funk Metal. Do you hear any metal in Red Hot Chili Peppers.... um hell no. It can be easily called Funk Rock.... just as Hair Metal bands can be called Glam Rock or Hard Rock.

There Ya Go...

That's my bro E!!!

[Racerx2k]

Blue Cheer or Iron Butterfly (In-A-Gadda-Da-Vidda) or even Led Zeppelin (Communication Breakdown).... made the foundation of heavy metal... but aren't actually concidered one... Sabbath defined what metal is with more darker sound and vibe.

that being said... hairbands... I don't ever concider them metal.... hell even the members in RATT said they aren't metal. To me it's 80's hard rock.
Some Hairbands did have a lot of metal elements (like palm muted guitar riffs). Early Motley Crue had a lot of metal elements... but they also had a lot of punk in their music too. They could be easily called a punk band then.
Early RATT had some metal-ish riffs, but the later era.... hmmm can't hear any metal at all. Is Bon Jovi metal in any way?
Or what about those street-glam sleaze bands. Like G'N'R or Faster Pussycat. Zero metal in their music. Skid Row was metal when they gave out their 2nd album.
It's a subgenre under even bigger picture called ROCK. It's not necessary to but everything under the label metal. When it's hard to define something.... it's rock.
Van Halen (who are concidered classic rock or hard rock everywhere) gave birth to hair metal... while tons of hair bands were copying Van Halen's sound and some were even softer sounding than VH but still are concidered metal then it's weird as VH isn't metal.

Some folks started using the term Funk Metal. Do you hear any metal in Red Hot Chili Peppers.... um hell no. It can be easily called Funk Rock.... just as Hair Metal bands can be called Glam Rock or Hard Rock.

I wish I woulda recorded the VH1 airing of "Heavy: The History Of Metal". If you've never seen it, it was pretty cool. They DO mention the debate over the origin of heavy metal, as well as the phrase, itself, not to mention the whole devil-horns thing. But, yeah, those first bands that paved the way, even though they helped create the sound, they were never considered heavy metal. Ratt used to actually bill themselves as "Fashion Rock" (WTF?!), but they, as well as Crue, were early 80s metal, whether they liked it or not. Yeah, Crue had punk influences, such as some of the blatant ripping of Johnny Thunder and The New York Dolls (Just look at Johnny, then look at Nikki during the Theater of Pain period), but for anyone to call them "punk" would've been a miscategorization, as well as a good way to piss of alot of punkers. Bon Jovi is just corporate (read: "bubble-gum") metal. Half their albums coulda been confused with a Debbie Gibson release.
It seem that once the music starts to get away from chugging palm mutes, and pointy guitars (hehe) it fades from being heavy metal. Probably why Faster Pussycat, GNR, and the like were simply hard rock: more open chords, and actually more of the classic-style instruments, too. Les Pauls, Teles, Strats. Less V-toned EQs, and in some cases, less gain. More of a classic Marshall sound, found on the rock albums of those before them, like AC/DC, Zeppelin, Thin Lizzy, etc.
I've NEVER heard of the phrase "Funk Metal", and I certainly hope I never do, again. That, to me, is like ketchup on my waffles! I consider Chili Peppers more "fake funk" than anything else. Anthony tried to hard to appear deep, but that's my own personal opinion.

[Endrik]

The term Funk Metal has been around for a long time. Usually 80's bands who mixed funk with rock were called like that. Very few of them had actually anything to do with metal.

Maybe you have heard the most well known ones....like

Living Colour - (very experimental band, mixed everything...funk, pop, reggae, rock, jazz, metal, hardcore punk, electronic music etc. they have probably one of the most versatile rhythm sections in the world - Doug Wimbish & Will Calhoun - there's not a music genre they haven't played)

Extreme - (you know Nuno's band... mix of funk, prog, Van Halen-ish rock and Beatles-esque melodies)

Red Hot Chili Peppers (early material was high energy funk mixed with punk rock... from the late 90's they are alternative pop/rock)

Faith No More - (funk meets heavy metal and prog rock)

I Mother Earth - (early stuff was psychedelic hard rock mixed with funk and latin music... the later stuff was alternative and industrial rock)

Fishbone - (experimental band... funk, ska, reggae, jazz, metal etc. combined)

there's many more but these are the most well known.... I'm sure you've heard some of them. All of them were categorized "Funk Metal". Actually all those bands were totally different from each other and were a breath of fresh air in the 80's music. Talent and versality is the keyword. While a lot of the 80's rock and metal was static and stale rhytmically... these guys brought the groove back.

As a die hard funk fan and having listened hundreds of classic funk and motown records I can say that RHCP and fake doesn't belong in the same sentence. They have their own twist on things.... and while they are kinda wuzzy these days.... the old stuff is killer.
Even Mr. Funk himself approves - George Clinton.... who btw. wanted to produce their album... wich he did off course... Freaky Styley.
And RHCP happends to have one of the greatest rhythm sections in rock - Flea and Chad are extremely talented and skilled musicians.

[horns666]

I was playin'..I mother Earth and some Mindfunk the other day when I was goin' thru my stuff.

Oh ..Stevie Salas too!

[Endrik]

I Mother Earth is the most underrated band ever.... their first album DIG is a master piece.


Stevie Salas with T.M. Stevens kicks ass!!!

[Racerx2k]

Yes, I've heard all of those bands, but never heard anyone refer to them as Funk Metal, and I'm 39. Out of all those, the only one I ever really cared for was Fishbone. I'd say it had more to do with the reggae/ska flavor more than anything.