While many people could easily point out aspects of the music industry that suck, there’s one thing gaining traction lately that really needs to stop: creating and applying musical genres based solely on a group’s lyrics.

Music is sound. It’s a combination of many things, not just words. Placing all of the focus on the lyrics is detrimental to the rest of the music, and often wildly misleading when trying to describe the musicians’ overall sound.

For example, I’ve seen scores of music bloggers referring to bands as “Viking metal”…just because they’re metal bands who sing about Vikings and Norse mythology. That’s not enough; a band would still need to use classical Scandinavian musical stylings and extreme riffs in there, otherwise any metal song about the legendary northern warriors would instantly be considered Viking metal based on the lyrics alone. If that’s the case, then Led Zeppelin’s famous “Immigrant Song” is Viking metal. Ridiculous!

Next we have Swashbuckle, who are often referred to as “pirate metal.” Technically, this is incorrect: Swashbuckle may perform in pirate costumes and write lyrics about nautical nonsense, but they’re a thrash/death metal band. (Full disclosure: I’ve written about Swashbuckle for Musician Photo Journal, and even I’ve fallen prey to using the term “pirate metal.”)

Drifting away from metal, we have “nerd rock.” This is rock or punk music wherein the lyrics deal with topics such as comic books or video games. Again, it’s a piss-poor genre; just because your band sings about something that might be geek-related, that doesn’t change the riffs on your guitars, now does it? Case and point: look at “I am the Law,” a thrash metal classic by Anthrax. Using modern standards, this song would be classified as “nerd rock” because the subject is Judge Dredd, a comic book character. Clearly, this is wrong; no one would ever consider an Anthrax song to be nerd rock! So why are other songs with nerdy lyrics given that rubber stamp?

We all know the real reason for these misleading genres: money. If you advertise your group as a rock band, even though you happen to sing about Star Trek, you won’t get far. Promote yourself as a nerd rock band, however, and science fiction convention planners will be knocking down your door. Furthermore, nerdy lyrics and the like are often used as a cover to hide many bands’ lack of musical skill. Fanboys are much more likely to give a crappy rock band a free pass if they’re singing about Batman than if they were performing Top 40 songs.

I still think a band should stick to its guns and forgo these fake genres. Your music should always come first before selling out, but that’s not a popular opinion these days.

As more and more CDs are coming in Digipak-style cardboard cases, I find myself becoming more and more annoyed.

Even if you’re not familiar with the patented name, you’re guaranteed to have come across a few Digipaks in your travels. These are CD cases made mostly (or sometimes completely) out of paper products, that unfold to reveal the disc, liner notes, et cetera. (They also have DVD cases that are built much the same way.)

My problem with Digipaks is their lack of durability. I take excellent care of my media, as I want it to last as long as possible. Unless you never remove them from your shelf, Digipaks are bound to get scuffed and worn, especially on the edges of their spines. Good old-fashioned jewel cases hold up much better than that. Plus, jewel cases are easily replaceable; Digipak albums have to be purchased again.

I understand that some artists use Digipaks to do clever creative things with the packaging, and that’s okay, I guess. I’m a big fan of collecting physical copies of my media, as I do like the artwork and such. What bugs me is when record labels just use it as a cost-cutting measure…but don’t drop the price of the CD itself. Unless you’re doing something with the packaging that cannot be replicated with a jewel case, then don’t bother.

Some might prefer Digipaks, claiming that their cardboard construction is better for the environment. Of course, most people aren’t throwing out CD cases like one would a plastic bag. Furthermore, additional printings of many CDs end up in jewel cases, anyway!

Clearly, this argument against Digipaks is one of personal preference. But guess what, it’s my damned blog, and my preference is solid plastic!

Ever had to deal with the two-second skip between tracks on a CD? You don’t see (or rather, hear) this much anymore, but it was more prevalent in the past due to the way CD burners handled the disc writing process. For studio albums, this isn’t a big deal; when a song ends, a few seconds of silence is normal, and you likely won’t even notice it. But when it comes to live albums…it’s intolerable, and hugely distracting.

Wondering what brought this post on? A week and a half ago, I covered an Epica show for Musician Photo Journal. (You can read my review of the show here, and my interview with Epica founder/guitarist Mark Jansen here.) After the show, I hit the merchandise table to buy a few Epica CDs I was missing. One of them was their second full-length album, Consign to Oblivion. The other was The Classical Conspiracy, a double live album featuring the band playing classical tunes as well as their own, backed by a forty-member orchestra and thirty-member choir. It’s the latter album that sparked this post.

Don’t get me wrong, the music on the album is nothing short of stunning; Epica’s renditions of classical pieces is amazing, and the full orchestra providing accompaniment to their own compositions is a natural fit. The first disc is just perfect; each track flows into the next without pause.

The second disc, however, has those dreaded gaps. So, in the midst of the crowd cheering between songs, there’s a cut to two seconds of silence, then back to the crowd. It completely destroys the illusion that you’re attending a live performance, which is the entire point of a live album!

Do I blame the band for this? Of course not. Nor do I blame the record label. The fault almost certainly lies with the hardware used to mass produce the CDs at the factory; perhaps a setting was toggled incorrectly, or an older machine was used to write them. Whatever the cause, it’s still irritating. I’ve used iTunes to ignore those last two seconds, but it’s not seamless; the gaps in the CD are like a kick in the ear every time.

Quality control, people, quality control!

In case you didn’t know, extreme metal is a passion of mine. In particular, I really enjoy black metal, a form of music that came out of the frozen countries of Scandinavia, especially Norway. The epic imagery that the music conjures is second to none.

If explaining my love of death metal to people is difficult, then doing so for black metal makes it look like a walk in the park by comparison. Death metal may be loud, growly, and fast, but the folks involved with that scene didn’t go off the damned reservation the way many black metal band members and fans did. The gangsta rap world has a notorious reputation for acts of violence, but I think black metal surpasses that. Not only were people involved in the scene killing each other as well as innocent people, there was also violent suicide and widespread destruction of property, notably the burning down of Christian churches. This was done in defiance of Christianity’s supplanting of the pagan religions common throughout Scandinavia’s history. Then there’s the idiotic racism and other prejudice displayed by some black metal musicians. Put simply…some of these guys are fucking nuts. (For further reading on the subject, I highly recommend the book Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground.)

With all of that notoriety practically eclipsing the music, it’s hard to prove to people that one can enjoy the music without all of the assorted baggage. I’ve always been a proponent of separating a creator’s personal life and actions from their media, but with black metal, it’s hard for people unfamiliar with the scene to make that distinction, because everything is seemingly intertwined. I’ve gotten some horrified looks when I tell people about this stuff, let me tell you, and those looks almost always mean that I’m somehow fucked up for enjoying the music. Even if I point out how incredibly ridiculous some black metal bands look, due to heavy use of corpsepaint, spikes, and leather, it doesn’t seem to help.

So, I’m often left with just shrugging my shoulders in disgust. People are often going to remain ignorant, no matter what opinions are brought up to the contrary. My only regret is that I didn’t get into black metal back in high school. Maybe people would’ve left me alone!

What is it with people and their complete inability to disconnect from their cellphones for even a brief span of time?

I was at the Dream Theater show last week with one of my friends, and the sheer number of bright white screens detracting from our enjoyment of the concert was ludicrous. You don’t need to send a text message or check your fucking Twitter feed every five minutes, you sad, pathetic losers. Put the thing down, and enjoy the band you actually paid to come see!

This kid next to us watched the entirety of the concert through his cellphone’s screen, for crying out loud. It was annoying, and if he’d been in the row in front of us, extremely distracting. In that case, I would’ve angrily ordered him to put the damned thing away.

(There was also the two drunken douchebags behind us who wouldn’t shut the fuck up, but that’s a completely different issue than the cellphone problem.)

If you’re going to attend a show, you don’t need to be on the damned phone. Seriously, put the fucking phone away before I slap it out of your hand.