Thread: Keyboards: The Great Debate

Yeah...keyboards don't have to be wimpy, just like physical contact - there's good touch and bad touch. People who say keyboards suck just because may have been victims of the bad touch.














Music wise.

Mars you are right keyboards can add to a song. I object to them when they take over a song and bury the guitars.
Bands that do that on every song just don't get played in my house.

Now, that is a different stance. And this is a valid point for me, as well. Guitars first, keys = background noises.

Originally Posted by Marsallah

Now, that is a different stance. And this is a valid point for me, as well. Guitars first, keys = background noises.

That has always been my stance. The problem is that when a band has a keyboard player he understandably wants to play on every song, and all through the song.
That is why I don't like many bands that have keyboards.

Metal without guitars is most brutal and ugly metal as fuck.

Originally Posted by Dane

Metal without guitars is most brutal and ugly metal as fuck.

No guitars? But there my favorite part...

I think keyboards can really add to a meledy.
For example, Moonsorrow always use keyboards really well, their new album has barely any keyboards in it and it is easily their worst. I think if it's the kind of music that uses keyboards well, when you take them out it gets a lot worse.

This thread is now where we will debate the importance of keyboards in metal. Since this topic can easily turn into a case of "Uh uh, yeah huh, no, yep, no u!" back and forth bickering, please keep this thread intelligent with actual reasons to support your opinions. This will keep the thread interesting.

I really like the keyboards in some songs.
The problem I have with a full time keyboard player in a band is it understandably hard to tell
a band member "we don't need you on this song". Or "You are only going to play one tenth of the time"
As a result bands that have keyboard players over use them more often than not.
The best scenario would be to have a one of the members either the singer or a guitar player that also plays the keys,
if they feel a song should have keys they can be added, with no feeling of obligation to play 80 to 100% of the time.
That is the way I would like the keys to be used.
Some one who loves keyboards would say "Let him play all of the time".

for me, keyboards are best used in 2 scenarios.

1. as a backdrop. never really in the foreground, but in the back filling space and giving the production a "full" sound. Devin Townsend has keyboards in almost all of his songs and you rarely notice it.
2. As a member of the band, equally important as the others. Guitars can be the main focal point without being the "most important". Do what the song needs. If it needs a keyboard solo rather than a guitar solo, do it. Don't just do it to give everyone a chance to shine. Give the song what it needs. Some bands like Genesis profit from having more keyboard solos than guitar solos and it works. For other bands it doesn't. Simple enough.

In the Nightside Eclipse, Moon in the Scorpio, In Abhorrence Dimentia, Tales from the Thousand Lakes, The Pagan Prosperity, all of Finntroll, and many more wouldn't have that magic touch without them.

i completely disagree with you about Emperor and Type O Negative.

Type O Negative - Unless you ONLY like their punky thrashy stuff, I don't see how this makes sense at all. Everything Dies, September Sun, Love You to Death. How would these songs (and all the others like this) be better without keyboards.

As for Emperor, I agree with you to a point... but the best Emperor song for me is The Loss and Curse of Reverence, which is built on keyboards.

I probably like music with keyboards more than without (I even listen to synth pop/rock, Hot Chip, PNAU etc) and so too with metal. When I write music it will usually have a strong keyboard focus (I can show some stuff I guess, never put my music up on MRU). I acknowledge where keyboards are out of place and I stop listening but more or less bands with keys always make it work. That said there are certain styles of keyboard use that I don't like, such as big synth hits as heard in Sigh and Children of Bodom etc, with some exceptions.

I think Mirrorthrone, despite being a lesser known one-man-band, has the best keyboard driven sound in metal.

Originally Posted by stach

I really like the keyboards in some songs.
The problem I have with a full time keyboard player in a band is it understandably hard to tell
a band member "we don't need you on this song". Or "You are only going to play one tenth of the time"

This is very true. My boyfriend's band used to have a violinist and she ended up just not going to practices or not showing up to shows because she wasn't used in every song. I personally think that's a bit selfish but I don't know how I'd react in that situation either.

Well she loved the genre of music and everything, but she's been kicked out of other bands due to her same unreliabilities (if that's a word xD) so I'm guessing she wanted to be used in every song and have the whole band revolve around her.