Project song done in 2012

I think where me and the guitarist clashed was that he was an 80s musician and I was a European vocalist.

What is European metal? Its all metal music that is talented that has musical roots going back to Europe. European metal is also all talented metal music written after the collapse of the American music industry which collapsed about 1993/1994 as most would agree. This song "Hold On" is classified as 80s metal written after the 80s, after the collapsed of the American music industry. So it is not European metal. Again, the term European metal is only an American slang that refers to talented artistry. When the American music industry collapsed the European scene stayed true to talent and musical diversity and the very best metal albums ever done were done in Europe. Anyone well trained in music will have no appetite for American music from 1993/1994 on up. Some of the American pop was real good between then and now, but all American metal influenced by the new American sound just plain suck which is why metal music has joined the ranks of Polka in status. Sure, there are people who still like Polka. But the market for Polka is dead. Likewise American metal is now a bottom feeder type of music. It sucks. It sucks real bad. I appreciate talent which is why I've long admired European artists. Those artists are nothing here in America but very well known in Europe and South America where talent is still accepted.

80s metal has been a talented way for starving artists to keep talent alive in America. But its still 80s metal and a hard sell these days. European metal focuses more on fusing classical with metal along with other elements like jazz and folk. Over in Europe there is musical diversity. Here in America there is just one sound that is force fed by the American music industry. Plus, the American music industry places all their focus on the ideology of artists so they can brainwash another generation of youth into communism. The result is a soulless sound that lacks all the excellent qualities of the diverse music heard in the 70s and 80s.

Really? That's how writing is done? I've written songs before. Never written one "exactly like that." Some of my songs I've performed, some others have performed or recorded. But never exactly that way. Maybe it's a "superior European thing."



What the heck is "jazz timing"? That's not a thing.



Much of music is taste. This is not at all my taste.

I don't want to be mean, but if you're showcasing this as some kind of exemplar of "superior European music," you can count it as a fail.

Ah...? More American ignorance which is why America cannot produce a single artist that can compete with Europe's least talented artists (let alone their best). Jazz is all about timing. This especially in drums. Most serious metal musicians want a jazz drummer over a drummer that only knows how to play metal. Why? Because the metal band is a progressive metal band which means lots of fancy timing going on. Its not the standard 4-4 timing. 

Now as a singer I learned how to sing Frank Sinatra very very well. I learned all those great jazz artists. Now, take what you know about those artists and fuse that with metal. You get metal vocals with the very hard to learn jazz timing. Singing Sinatra will rip your guts apart when you're new to it. You will run out of breath. You will huff and you will puff but you won't blow the house down. It took me some time to adjust to Sinatra's timing as it is not the standard timing used by heavy meta vocalists. I had mastered that jazz timing. This gives a metal vocalist a nice edge over the competition that are limited to just knowing how to sing metal only. I am not a metal only singer. I can leave the field of metal and excel in any field of my choosing. But, for all that its worth, I really don't care anymore. I no longer write music or sing. I have better things to do with my life. 



No. Marketing. All Americans are victims of marketing. Your average American only likes what s/he hears. When a person hears crap they will like crap. Good music is no longer marketed in the United States. It hasn't been since about 1994. The European movement kicked off strong in 1995. i abandoned all American musical thought since 1995. Sadly, the United States will never again be a musical nation. Meanwhile, all other countries are enjoying their talented artists.



I agree with you here. This is an 80s metal song. You see, a timeline can be produced that shows the dates in which music has changed in structure and approach. Before the alternative plague killed musicians, there was no American music or European music. Though most of our popular artists were indeed European simply because Europe has a vast musical culture that America inherited. However, when the alternative virus broke out, and rap got even more popular, it killed true artistry on the popular mainstream stage. This caused the American and European music industries to clash for the first time in record history. America dropped all standards of excellence and pushed rap and alternative which is devoid of everything required to make great music. But moreover, it killed diversity in the music biz. 

The song you hear IS NOT a studio cut. You are used to hearing the finished product but obviously not familiar with the stages of writing before it reaches the studio. this song, unfortunately, didn't turn out the way it could have. But this is where we finished. He didn't want a studio recording. 


I've performed many originals and covers. I was a career vocalist from 1994 to 2003. In 1994 I joined my first band and it was a very good band! I was never in a crap band. I've always been with very talented musicians. But I've only worked with one guitarist who was a great writer who singers all liked. There is a major difference between writing a song and writing a masterpiece. In European metal, the fan base only want to hear one masterpiece after another. Learning how to write masterfully is not easy. Its also a matter of how much knowledge and drive you have. I did eventually become a masterful writer. The melody I put to the song is the melody that belongs there. I give the music what it calls for--nothing more and nothing less. You can't just write any melody in a stanza. It does have to fit the stanza provided. This is why I like writing the rhythms on guitar. That why I, as the singer, can choose the melody I want to sing. 

Like the song or not its the only thing of me that's on youtube. Other than that I don't care. I'm no longer a singer and will probably never sing again. I retired in 2003. This project song was recorded in 2012. I was very out of practice but still did well enough. Normally I sing much different than what you heard. This song called for a Queensryche style approach which I did. But to be honest, I don't like these old styles anymore. They restrict me vocally. They keep me bound to the 80s. I am not an 80s metal singer. There is a difference between 80s metal and European metal. At least from 1995 on up. 

Hey Qezzilla,

Did your mother ever have you tested?

If I were high on a combination of LSD, mushrooms, pot, and alcohol, with a cocaine chaser, the music (if one can call it that) in the OP might be tolerable. Sadly, I've not done any of those in years, and never all at once.

Let's face it though, I was a music major for a brief period at Cal, and also the entertainment editor for another campus rag, but had to turn it off after about 20 seconds. Cause it made my brain hurt. Bad.

Oh well, better luck next time. I'm sure someone will like it.

Oh, and I suppose you can do better? 
Lets hear your poser voice. I bet you sing like every other dumb American. You suck because of the geographical region in which you were born. Its not my fault you suck. I'd rather you not suck. But it seems your liberal buddies cancelled talent in America back in the early 90s as their first major crusade in the cancel culture. This was most likely done because music can often stimulate the mind to think and liberals don't want anyone to think. So they marketed alternative until singers and standards were abolished in America. Later, alternative morphed into nu punk and from there everything just sounds like total dog shit. 

I was a world class vocalist. You are just a shit talker who just wants to rattle my cage. Maybe you should shit talk someone who cares. I really don't care. Go post yourself singing and embarrass yourself. I at least have a name as a vocalist. You don't. You suck. I know you suck. You're American. There is no more talent in America. Its been bred out of American society. Its not my fault. Its your hippie liberal communists who cancelled music in America. So go pose for some photos and pretend you're a rock star. We both know you suck. 

You're a fifty year old loser living in a double wide.

And you're crazy.

You've done nothing.

A legend in your own mind.

You're sitting with a bunch of cows in the boonies. Have you ever even left your home state?  

So...what, then? 3/4? 5/4? 7/8? Swing?

There is no "jazz timing." And "jazz timing" is not "the alternative to "standard 4/4." Seriously, you talk like you're an expert, then you say crap like this.

And, by the way, I'm not American.


Frank Sinatra was a "great jazz artist"?


That's nice. I don't listen to very much American pop from 2000+, except what my wife puts on. I'll listen to '70s-'90s pop or rock, jazz, classical, etc. Once again, your presumption makes you sound like an moron.

Because I don't like what you recorded doesn't mean that my tastes are subjected to marketing or that I listen to 2000s pop.

AND...YES, music is largely a matter of taste. What, I should listen to music I don't like? Why should anyone?


No. Again, you presume. I've recorded stuff. I know what it sounds like pre-mixed and pre-mastered.

So no, I'm not judging it according to "what I'm used to hearing." Stop presuming. You're not doing yourself any favours.



So..."that's how writing is done" according to your limitations? Because "you only want to write masterpieces"? Such a damn shame Mozart didn't do it that way. Or Wagner. Etc.


I guess we can be grateful for that?



I guess we can be grateful for that too?

Sorry, now I'm being mean.
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