So, What Non-Metal groups/genres make you whant to write music or influence your song writing?

as I said in a different thread, I am enormously influenced and inspired by the music genius of Dead Can Dance (Ethereal Wave).

I also am Inspired by Loreena McKennit (Folk/New Age), Corvus Corax (Folk) and Boston (Classic Rock)

Electric Light Orchestra, Rush, Pink Floyd, Yes, Fleetwood Mac.... a few others that I can't think of right now (must be the beer, the weed or just sheer exhaustion)....

c'mon guys there must be more.

lets GO!!!

Tons of classical composers mainly.

I get incredibly annoyed when people say this for the most part. I've never once sat down, listened to something and said 'ah yes, I can hear the Prokofiev in this', or 'this band was clearly listening to Stravinsky when they wrote this' no matter how much people pretend that sort of thing is their main source of inspiration. I can somewhat understand saying song structures are influenced by symphonies, but anything beyond that leaves me calling bullshit.

Yes
Rush
Gentle Giant
Van der Graaf Generator
King Crimson
Coheed and Cambria
Jimi Hendrix Experience
Uriah Heep
3
Debussy. Just about any acoustic/instrumental song of mine is influenced by the way he made all his songs flow steadily, in layers. Really helped me discover how to get a bigger sound with just one instrument.


Basically just about any older (some new) prog rock bands, old blues and rock artists.

In my stuff, most non-metal influence comes from the melodic content i.e. the chord progressions, etc, rather than the dynamic of said non-metal influences. I also don't consciously choose how these influences bleed into my music, if at all. As far as non-metal goes:

Genesis
Rush (even though they're in the Archives)
Cocteau Twins
Kate Bush
Enya
Clannad
Laibach
Current 93
Lisa Gerrard
Radiohead
Steve Vai


And also the non-metal ventures of numerous once-metal bands like Ulver...

I've been listening to alot of harsh EBM and Industrial as of lately so that has inspired me to start writing more electronic music. I listen to alot of trance as well but that doesn't ever seem to have much influence on my writing. I at some point think I may want to try incorporate some of this stuff into my metal writing as well but at the moment I am pretty busy with my band and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't appreciate me adding industrial sections into our songs. That and it probably wouldn't fit into well either.
Some bands that I would list as influences would be,

Grendel
Dawn of Ashes
God Module
Tactical Sekt
Heimataerde

Sorry Intarweb tough guy. I'll be more careful next time.

Just don't preach that ANUS bullshit around here and you won't be scolded.

You forgot to mention Emperor and all their infernal wankery, mattp.

That wouldn't fit into a non-metal discussion though! Unless you wanted to say that Prometheus isn't a metal album...

Nor were his solo works, and yes, it would fit into non metal discussion

Dax Riggs' post-Acid Bath music.

Gee, you sure showed me to be wrong. I am vanquished, you may go back to softly giggling in a corner pretending the tripe you write has anything to do with classical music.

HUGE influence in my folk metal band Rosenrot.

What the fuck? Classical composers can influence people in many ways, not just musically. The thing that influences me from classical composers, is their inspirations in which they draw from nature, loneliness and their inner emotions. Classical music is art, and that's what I believe music should be recognized as, so influences may be drawn from the "artistic" side of classical music.

You shouldn't let a harmless little statement annoy you so much. You jumped on his ass as if this was something you took major offense to, which would be ridiculous.

They're an incredible band, but sorely overlooked. I just love the weird chord progressions they use. Really helps me when I need to break out of a rut in my writing, but still want to keep something normal in the overall sound.

yes
I love beethoven's quote "Composers do not cry! Composers are made of fire!"

Beethoven has a lot of great quotes. Here is another one that I like:

"I despise a world which does not feel that music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy."

- Ludwig Van Beethoven

You are aware that just because someone is influenced by something they don't have to sound like it?

I listen to tons of music besides metal, and am probably influenced by some of it. Whether or not it can be heard in the music I make is another thing completely, in fact I'd prefer it not to be too obvious.

Some favorites include

80's goth rock
old british punk
some dark wave/ambient/electronic things
and...

"tons of classical composers"! Seriously.

I like a lot of funk/jazz bass work, such as Bill Dickens and Marcus Miller. I also find Chick Corea rather inspiring.

Lady in Black is my favorite song of thiers, and maybe one of my favorite songs of all time. The story it tells inspired most of the lyrics in my band.

A lot of hardcore punk influences the stuff I write, though not in aA metalcore-ish way.

As far as specific bands go:

Joy Division
My Bloody Valentine
Iggy & The Stooges
The Velvet Underground
Aphex Twin

...and there are probably more.

Thats a lovely sentiment, but it really doesn't hold a lot of water. What we're talking about here isn't influence so much as it is inspiration much in the same way one might be inspired to write music with a certain atmosphere after looking at a painting/walking through the woods/reading a book/whatever, not musical influence.



But it does annoy the hell out of me. I really can't stand when people who write absolutely derivative music pretend they're deeply influenced by unrelated music to try and give themselves some sort of artistic merit they don't have. Quorthon can claim he listened to nothing but classical when he was writing the first Bathory albums all he'd like, the music itself is still void of any classical influence and is still the result of what Venom composed, not Mozart. Perhaps I'm being irrational but fuck it, its still a pet-peeve of mine.


Edit: Re-reading the thread I've just noticed my faux pas, as it was a matter of inspiration and not influence in the first place. Disregard my comments then, oops.

my most important influences are probably king crimson, pink floyd and jimi hendrix.

i have more non-metal influences than metal ones, but here goes (grouping bands by two per genre)...

john cage, steve reich, joy division, husker du, my bloody valentine, slowdive, agitation free, popol vuh, orchid, moss icon, sebadoh, dinosaur jr, einsturzende neubauten, burning star core, glenn branca, teenage jesus & the jerks, black flag, flipper, peter brotzmann, alice coltrane, and loads more.

while i enjoy my share of relatively derivative and wholly unoriginal metal, i'd feel pretty guilty if i were to create it myself.

I don't care if i get flamed for this or whatever but i also take influence in classical music. And no i'm not one of those people that are infulenced by something that sounds totally different than what they play. when i write stuff , i try to think of symphonic parts that would go along with the metal riffs. i think that Symphonic Metal is one of the most underlooked genres ever.

As far as inspiration goes, blues and folk does it for me as well.

Recently, I have been adding more electronic influence into Shardborn.
We have started to realize that Black Metal is in a rut of old cliches and conservatism.

We are begining to add influences from both of our eclectic tastes to come up with more innovative black metal, thats why we call it "Modern Black Metal"

so ya, recently stuff like Icon of Coil, KMFDM and stuff.

A lot of people like symphonic metal dude. Its actually one of the more popular genres of metal. Symphonic black metal acts such as Dimmu Borgir, Graveworm, etc have a lot more fans than typical black metal.

You can't tell me that Yngwie doesn't sound classically influenced. Or Rhapsody Of Fire, or Power Quest even, too name the better known ones.

I can only see one reason for throwing a fit over that. Just because we're playing distorted guitars instead of violins doesn't mean we cant utilize classical "Structures", and scales, sure it wont obviously sound like classical but there is an underlying similarity.

But for me I'm really influenced by old time jazz, at least in my one man band stuff(which isn't really metal, it's like jazz fusion mixed with instrumental rock).

Yeah. If metallers can't be classically influenced, then jazz fusion is a lie. After all, jazz fusion bands rarely have trumpeters or upright bass players. What a joke. Sure, neo-classical metal is a definite misnomer - it implies some affiliation with the general neo-classical movement (which it has none), but classically influenced metal is quite possible.

As I said earlier, pretending that one is more influenced by classical music than earlier rock/metal bands is an incredible load of bullshit, and your jazz fusion argument is irrelevant. Pretending that repetitive riffing inside basic structures is heavily influenced by great composers with far more vision is utter non-sense. Bands like Manowar can pretend all they'd like that they're the successors of Wagner (lol), fact of the matter is they're the result of Black Sabbath and Judas Priest. Yngwie Malmsteen fanboys can go on and on about the theory behind his playing being the result of J.S. Bach more than other rock guitarists, fact of the matter is what hes doing is more deeply rooted in blues and rock than classical, even if he borrows ideas from it.

Bach i still cant write a solo but bach is the shit and Santana

My influences outside metal consist mainly of ambient and post-rock musicians; Brian Eno being a major one, as well as Harold Budd, Eluvium, Explosions in the Sky, The Angelic Process, and Sigur Rós. I cite Pink Floyd, Corona Borealis, Eddie Vedder, and Tenhi as my biggest folk-esque/acoustic influences also.

I believe it's called "Neo-classical metal" not "Metal neo-classical" implying that there is more influence from rock/metal than classical.

I draw a great deal of influence from post rock bands such as Mono or Explosions in the Sky. Next in line is industrial music, mainly Skinny Puppy. But more than anything (perhaps even more than metal) I am influenced by the work of Nobou Uematsu, primarily his work for the Final Fantasy series.

This back and forth is really entertaining, guys...keep it goin'

...I'd just like to add that my main musical influence is Arnold Schoenberg.