veninblazer: Metal elements ranked

veninblazer 01.25.25	M/en
jrlikestodance 01.25.25	Riffs in last is painful < / 3
veninblazer 01.25.25	it might have been higher in years past but ive grown to really appreciate all the stuff around them more
Futures 01.25.25	riffs last irrelevant
veninblazer 01.25.25	again i'm sorry :-( can't put any other element last with a clear conscience, stripping away anything else (except vocals on instrumental releases) makes most albums feel incomplete. if I was to bit-by-bit take parts away on most albums, axing the rhythm guitar has the smallest effect on my enjoyment - noticeable, but everything else can pretty much carry the weight enough for it to not bother me
Avagantamos 01.25.25	I thought this was gonna be about tungsten and platinum etc. =[
veninblazer 01.25.25	HA, i had a feeling someone would comment this
unclereich 01.25.25	ag is 47
pyroflare77 01.25.25	Vocals are easily the least relevant... unless they're rad or the lyrics actually hit
Hyperion1001 01.25.25	1. drums 2. riffs 3. urghs
Egarran 01.25.25	1. Magnesium 2. Thallium 3. Indium
NexCeleris 01.25.25	1. drums 1. riffs 3. ruhs [2]
veninblazer 01.25.25	vocals being #1 is conditional to if they're present or not tbh
el_newg 01.26.25	you put bass so much higher than riffs when 90% of bass in metal is just playing simple versions of the riffs lmao you can't be serious
botb 01.26.25	Riffs last? You need Jesus
artificialbox 01.26.25	Mine would probably be Rhythm guitar/riffs Lead guitar Drums Vocals/lyrical content Bass Ambient/atmospherics
veninblazer 01.26.25	bass/low-end keeps the mix together and sounding full, i'm not saying any element is inessential, but if I was to silence the rhythm guitar and nothing else in most metal i love, the detriment to my enjoyment is smaller than silencing any other element, i'm less bothered if the "riffs" aren't the greatest/most complex if everything else is stellar and serves the music
artificialbox 01.26.25	That's totally fair. I think because I've played mostly just guitar my whole life it's one of the biggest ways I relate to music.
jrlikestodance 01.26.25	Do you like Primus venin
veninblazer 01.26.25	yeah that's fair, i was always the drum kid then became the vocal kid. the largest extent of my guitar love came from rock band 3 and even then i found myself preferring playing the bass and vocal lines on that @jr: primus sucks! (yes i do)
jrlikestodance 01.26.25	Sick I didn't see you had any rated. They got the hard riffs. One of my favorites
veninblazer 01.26.25	completely forgot to rate 'em on here. need to spin the rest of their stuff but sailing the seas of cheese rips
SlothcoreSam 01.26.25	Mercury>>>
veninblazer 01.26.25	I'm partial to thallium and arsenic myself :^)
Futures 01.26.25	i seriously question how you can like metal and not care about riffs lol
Hawks 01.26.25	1. drums 2. riffs 3. urghs [3]
veninblazer 01.26.25	this requires a lot more nuance than i gave initially - some albums are centered more around the vocals, and people will dump on them because the riffs aren't as complex as previous works. meanwhile, if you ask the band, they'd tell you they wanted to focus more on other elements. i think that approach is valid, and if the riffs are great but everything else feels slapdash, it's harder to get past that, meanwhile if they took a backseat and everything else is good, i can more easily forgive it genuinely do wonder what most "riffs first" fans think of drone or dark ambient
el_newg 01.26.25	genuinely do wonder what most "riffs first" fans think of hard bop or gregorian chant
veninblazer 01.26.25	good question actually
artificialbox 01.26.25	"genuinely do wonder what most "riffs first" fans think of drone or dark ambient" not interested at all lol
Futures 01.26.25	well i listen to a ton of different genres, this list is about metal. i think 90% of people would say the riff is the most important thing to metal
veninblazer 01.26.25	to the point where they'd sacrifice making it fit with the other elements, though? if an album like gravity (bfmv) was chockfull of complex thrashy riffs to the point where it distracted from the personal focus of the writing just for the sake of retaining some "metal" cred would it be better?
Futures 01.26.25	i didn't say that, just that it is the focal point of most metal songs. if the focal point sucks the rest is kind of irrelevant. like pop i think most would say the most important element is the hook. if the hook stinks it will sink a song completely no matter the other elements.
veninblazer 01.26.25	i don't entirely disagree with there being a main focal point. but the thing is, many metal genres have very simple "riffs" (doom, sludge, drone metal, etc.) and sticking say, a thrash riff in there would stick out like a sore thumb, unless you're going for an intentionally avant garde approach, it's better to complement the rest of the composition so perhaps my point is more that the riff needs to fit with the rest? mayhaps it's also the producer brain in me wanting to focus on the entire picture rather than one focal point, and also my belief that genre boundaries are overly limiting and more elements from other places might do a world of good inspiration wise
chemicalmarriage 01.26.25	What's the common denominator in every 5/5 metal album? The poetry Jk it's the riffs. It's the fucking riffs
onionbubs 01.26.25	disappointed that this isnt a ranking of iron, calcium, aluminum, silver, and lead smh
Beardog 01.26.25	I can see your point venin but there is so much amazing metal without bass guitar that is purely carried by riffs bleghs and beats that I can't understand how you put rhythm guitar last
veninblazer 01.26.25	metal mixes just tend to feel super hollow and empty without audible bass. i've been cycling between 4.5 and 5 for and justice for all for that exact reason (leaning 5 now bc despite that, it WAS the most influential album to my desire to be a drummer in my younger years) and I'm so happy there's and justice for jason mixes that fix that
veninblazer 01.26.25	tl;dr: bass is important enough to me that i sought out justice for jason mixes to keep my love for ajfa going
Beardog 01.26.25	yeah but I mean that record without rhythm guitar and only the bass guitar is much more worse than .5 score I think
ToSmokMuzyki 01.26.25	1. riffs 2. vox 3. who cares
veninblazer 01.26.25	@beardog: i think w drums/bass/leads and vox I can get used to that missing piece a little quicker but ya it would feel more empty in that case because they didn't really have much else to fill in the gap, so that's fair. i've heard isolated ambient/electronic parts on like Sempiternal for instance and I still like just those elements on their own enough to give that at least a 4
Demon of the Fall 01.26.25	I’d need to separate vox and lyrics, as I’d have vox way higher. Lyrics in metal are virtually last (and 5 is 1, 6 is 2!). Atmosphere / textures and production carries a lot of my fave metal tbh.
veninblazer 01.26.25	i spend way too much time reading the lyric sheets along with albums especially when the focus is on the emotion being conveyed so in my experience lyrics and vox are inextricably tied most of the time
Beardog 01.26.25	Yeah Sempiternal is way more ambient oriented and there aren't really any riffs. Bass guitar can fill the spot there for sure. And yeah lyrics dead last hard agree
veninblazer 01.26.25	it's the producer brain in me thinking that it's not a big deal that I like a lot of stuff that isn't riff-oriented even tho people accuse me of hating riffs all the time lmfaoo lyrics last would be a lie if i did that considering any time i hear a key word (e.g: "misery" / anything to do with romanticism or depressive stuff) my ears perk up and i start reading the lyric sheets obsessively
rockarollacola 01.26.25	1. Riffs 2. Vox 3. Drums 4. Lead guitar (guitar solos are obligatory, but rarely make the songs better/worse) 5. Bass (cool when audible) 6. Atmospherics
veninblazer 01.26.25	honestly i used to not rlly care much about lead guitar before i started noticing it being used to add a lot to records that have more of an atmospheric sound (esp post-metal) and some solos in ballads just straight up make me cry and I love that feeling
MetalMarcJK 01.27.25	Chromium is pretty badass, as is vanadium and lead (sooooo heavy!). There’s some rad alloys and superalloys, too, like Titanium 5.
veninblazer 01.27.25	Chromium is cool
Dedes 01.27.25	Metal Elements ranked 1 Riffs 2
budgie 01.27.25	how are riffs not #1
budgie 01.27.25	oh everyone is already saying that how are leads not #1
Dedes 01.27.25	Venin have you tried jamming Arghoslent
Demon of the Fall 01.27.25	thinking "atmospherics" is really open to interpretation... shoehorned ambient passages or interlude abuse in proggy forms of metal = awful getting the production right and seamlessly incorporating lighter elements and / or oppressive heaviness depending on the style. Layering of guitars or other elements to achieve a thicc atmos etc. = of paramount importance. Having great technical chops and even solid core song-writing is nothing without being able to present it in an appealing way of course there's also a huge difference in potential ranking(s) depending on which corner of metal we're talking about
Beardog 01.27.25	I am honestly more impressed by bands creating atmosphere with just two guitars or even one guitar, than by all those cringey core bands needing 10 million backing keyboards and reverbed guitars to make their songs sound mildly interesting. Same goes for heaviness, needing 10 down tuned over processed guitars, or just two guitars playing awesome riffs with the right effects...
StormChaser 01.27.25	almost anything labeled as smth-core is the lowest form of music except for trap interesting to see someone actually focusing primarily on the lyrics. I'd say they're probably the last thing I give a shit about, but if they're shite/disgusting I'm passing on the band entirely. Also, if they're really good I do tend to value the album/artist more. Vocals are also less important than most of the other stuff to me, but if they're bad/too much I'm definitely not checking a band out (unless the music is as godly as Cynic's Focus was; I can learn to ignore the vocoder)
veninblazer 01.27.25	Dedes that is a band I will never touch with a ten foot pole and I'm offended you even suggested them also before you comment about why riffs isn't #1 i implore you to actually READ my comments pls
Futures 01.27.25	so true beardog, so much overproduced garbage in modern mainstream metal
veninblazer 01.27.25	Honestly I would pay good money for whatever Trent Reznor used on Pretty Hate Machine, that sound design was immaculate as far as electronic focused music goes
climactic 01.27.25	pretty sure he used a minimoog, would probably set you back 10k for one from the 80s
veninblazer 01.27.25	That's crazy expensive but yeah fair lmao
MetalMarcJK 01.29.25	Riffs Vox Rhythm Section (drums and bass) Lyrics Atmosphere - to include artwork