4th Clan Poll
Hey guys! I need your help. I'm having a real hard time deciding on which 4th clan to do a Clan Challenge and lock in after I finish my other 3 clan challenges. I've already done a challenge each for The Infinite and The Horde, now all that's left is The Revolution Melodic Metalcore Clan Challenge strategy. While I'm doing that Clan Challenge strategy, please help me make my ultimate decision by voting on which of the following 3 clans for me to lock in: The Fallen (based on the rather big amount of bands from that clan in my playlist), The Guardians (based on past history and a little too many flashbacks that make other members think I still have Guardians blood), and The Pit (based on a few bands in my playlist and more closely related to the other clans in terms of sound). This is like the Hall of Judgement for site members instead of band's albums! I suggest checking my profile through the different reviews and forum threads/replies to make it easier to judge, but you don't have to if you remember me so well. Please add a number by 1 when you vote (0 -> 1, 1 -> 2, 2 -> 3, etc.), and whichever gets the most votes would be the clan I choose to lock in. There's already one vote in one of the clans. Here's the clan poll:
The Fallen - 0
The Guardians - 1
The Pit - 0
Thanks in advance for the help, guys. Vote away!
I think ultimately it's something up to every individual, but since you're specifically asking for input, I'd probably lean away from The Pit. You seem to have far fewer releases rated for that, and a lot of what you do have has overlap with other clans anyway.
Just going on the numbers, Guardians definitely has the most in your collection, so I guess my vote is for that, though I could certainly see The Fallen instead if you feel more strongly about that.
The Fallen - 0
The Guardians - 2
The Pit - 0
I suppose, given the purpose of the clans, it also depends on what you feel more confidently about, since the idea is to have your clan votes be those you're most knowledgeable about. Usually that's going to be whatever you have most votes in, but it doesn't always have to be. So if there's one where you just feel like you know it better, that could be the one.
It's really an exercise in choosing the clans where our knowledge & experience can add the most to the site & its other users. To truly be a good fit for a clan you need to have a good knowledge of the history of its contained subgenres & be very passionate about most (if not all) of them.
The Pit - Thrash & speed metal are predominantly 80's based subgenres while groove metal is mainly 90's. You've openly spoken about the fact that you haven't spent much time with 80's metal your ratings for The Pit releases are all more recent. Many that cross over into The Infinite anyway (i.e. Vektor, Nevermore, etc.) so you'd already be influencing those releases without being a part of The Pit. I don't think this is a good fit for you to be honest.
The Fallen - You definitely have a stronger passion for the bands contained within this clan than for The Pit but your interests do tend to reside in small pockets (i.e. gothic metal & a bit of doom/death) rather than the overall clan. I've seen little evidence of a passion for traditional doom metal, funeral doom metal, drone metal, stoner metal, sludge metal, etc. so I don't think this is the clan for you either.
The Guardians - This is a no-brainer really. You have far more experience with subgenres like power metal & symphonic metal than most of our other members & I feel that you can really add benefit through your opinions & thoughts. You've always been drawn to the less intimidating & more melodic styles of metal & this clan is custom made for people with that characteristic. In all due respect, I've always thought that The Guardians should always have been your third clan along with The Revolution & The Infinite.
The Fallen - 0
The Guardians - 3
The Pit - 0
I've already included your vote, Daniel.
The Fallen - 0
The Guardians - 2
The Pit - 0
As to the vote, hey, it's ultimately your call what you go for, if you feel more strongly about the Fallen then go for it.
Update on Tymell's vote. Thanks, Tymell!
The Fallen - 1
The Guardians - 1
The Pit - 0
I've always found it surprising that you didn't select The Guardians as one of your starting clans, so that would be my vote. The Guardians need you!
Update due to Ben's vote:
The Fallen - 1
The Guardians - 2
The Pit - 0
Hey guys! With a few gothic/doom classics being recommended to me that I've listened to (Katatonia's Brave Murder Day) or haven't yet (Type O Negative's October Rust), I've realized that my passion for Fallen genres might be growing a little bigger with a little more potential in joining that clan. I'll listen to that Type O Negative album next week, but I'm planning on doing a couple Metal Academy challenges first, official and unofficial. After I finish my Revolution Melodic Metalcore Clan Challenge strategy by the end of this month, I plan on doing my unofficial Metal Evolution band challenge (https://metal.academy/forum/23/thread/318). It's an unofficial Metal Academy reviewing challenge I've made for anyone to try and see which of 4 metal genres/scenes (with 10 bands in each one) they have the most passion for and hope to see it evolve in the future, depending on the highest amount of ratings they have for each genre. I decided that I would do that unofficial challenge myself in April and see which of the genres I enjoy most, and since of those 4 metal genres/scenes is Goth Metal and Type O Negative is one of the bands listed which would be a great time to listen to their October Rust album, it might be the ultimate chance to see if I can prove myself worthy of being a member of The Fallen and start doing a Clan Challenge to lock in that clan. Now about the Guardians, I'm gonna explain why I don't have that clan as my main 3, so here goes...
2017: I was getting kinda tired of my epic symphonic power metal taste to the point where I was losing interest and passion. I didn't care anymore about finding different older Guardians bands and the bands that I felt like listen to were the recent ones that have released only a few albums so far. Of course I already told you all about that social media pen pal of mine who led me to that heavier modern side of metal, starting with Trivium. Yes, that band Trivium completely changed my metal perspective and soon led me to discovering and enjoying an array of bands from genres such as metalcore and the more extreme side of progressive metal and melodic death metal.
2018: Sometime around my 19th birthday, I decided it was time for me to clean my epic metal table at once and start building my modern extreme side from scratch. I got rid of all of my epic metal band discographies, except Amaranthe which is near power metal but mainly trance metalcore, and kept the newly discovered modern metal bands including Trivium and that new array of bands. I broke free from the epic melodic side and escaped into a different modern extreme world. Since then, I've been listening to those Horde/Infinite/Revolution bands and finding different bands from those clans and a couple other clans like The Fallen and The Pit.
2019: This of course is the year I discovered Metal Academy, and indeed I chose my 3 main clans based on the genres I believed to be truly passionate about, The Horde (death metal (just melodic/technical/death-doom, NONE of the obscene blasphemous standard stuff)), The Infinite (progressive metal), and The Revolution (metalcore). Then I added ratings to all the bands in these two categories; the bands I currently listen to in those 3 clans plus The Fallen and The Pit, and the bands I used to listen to in my epic melodic past just to show what I used to enjoy in the past. When the DragonForce album Extreme Power Metal came out, I listened to that album because I didn't wanna forget about the one band that completely started my metal interest. I loved that album enough to listen to new 2019 albums from a couple more power metal bands I used to like; Sonata Arctica and Blind Guardian, which are good flashbacks to my melodic past, but not as awesome as that DragonForce album. I also mentioned a few symphonic/power metal songs in The Guardians Track of the Day forum to continue those flashbacks.
2020 (Q1): When Daniel recommended that I listen to and review Lord's Fallen Idols album and Blind Guardian's Live album, I just did what he suggested and I loved both albums. I thought, "Oh he's just recommending a couple albums for me to check out to remind me of my power metal past. What nice suggestions!" But a month before today, when Daniel asked me how I'm not a Guardians member, it hit me harder than the heaviest riff you can ever imagine; Daniel thought I still like power/symphonic metal! He believes that with all those power/symphonic metal flashbacks along with history and knowledge of those genres, plus a few of the bands I currently listen to being a little more melodic than others in their respective genres, I still have Guardians blood and mind. Well that's kinda true, and I agree that having different metal tastes from past to present would make my palate more diverse and interesting, but I already swore off 99% of the amount of the Guardians bands I used to listen to. Well if this lengthy post doesn't convince any of you to change your vote from The Guardians to The Fallen, that's totally fine, I respect that. I guess if I decide to start locking in The Guardians, I can not only please some of you guys cheering me on but also return to listening to some bands from my melodic past and explore bands I've never or barely listened to before such as Lord. So yeah, thank you for the motivation! But my unofficial Metal Evolution band challenge would still be on to decide my ultimate fate....
The time has come for me to choose which clan I'm gonna start locking in as my 4th. After all those votes, I decided that the clan I'm going for is...
THE SPHERE!
(wait for next post)
LOL!!! APRIL FOOL'S!!!!! You didn't think I would choose the site's least popular clan that has nothing to do with my metal taste, did you?! Oh man, that's hilarious!!
All jokes set aside, thank you guys for all those votes, but I actually have one plan up my sleeve to prove my ultimate place in either The Fallen or The Guardians. In case you didn't read my lengthy story post above, let me summarize it for you:
Both The Fallen and The Guardians are clans with genres I naturally expanded in my taste range, but even though I have a bigger background history with power metal and symphonic metal (DragonForce, Blind Guardian, Sonata Arctica, etc.), I've forced myself out of those genres a couple years ago because I've lost passion for them and wanted to move my metal taste to this current more modern direction (Horde/Infinite/Revolution). But I think my Guardians flashbacks (ratings, reviews, tracks of the day, etc.) are starting to be too many to the point where it looks like I still have the mind of a Guardian. So starting later today, I plan on doing my unofficial Metal Evolution band challenge (https://metal.academy/forum/23/thread/318), an unofficial Metal Academy reviewing challenge I've made for anyone to try and see which of 4 metal genres/scenes (with 10 bands in each one) they have the most passion for and hope to see it evolve in the future, depending on the highest amount of ratings they have for each genre. I'm gonna do that unofficial challenge myself to see which genre I enjoy the most. Since of those 4 metal genres/scenes is Goth Metal, it might just be my greatest chance to prove myself worthy of locking in The Fallen clan in one of that clan's official challenges. OK, time for my unofficial band challenge. Onward to my true passion!
Hi Andi. Despite the fact that it sounds like a fun undertaking, I'm a little confused by what you're proposing. So the four subgenres listed for your unofficial challenge are goth metal (The Fallen), nu metal (The Gateway), New Wave Of American Metal (The Revolution) & Swedish death metal (The Horde). How is this going to prove whether your tastes are more affiliated with The Fallen or The Guardians when there isn't a subgenre relating to The Guardians?
Good point, Daniel. I'll just take out the nu metal list and replace it with power metal instead. Revised subgenre list coming soon!