Severed Fifth (open metal music)

[NightwishFan]

You probably have heard of Canonical Community Manager Jono Bacon. He is a popular and well known figure in the free software community. He also is the front man in a free culture music project known as Severed Fifth.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3117/2718140466_2a9d198820.jpg

Severed Fifth is a metal band from the California Bay Area, if you like metal such as Metallica or Iron Maiden you will feel right at home listening to Severed Fifth. Since they release all of their music under a creative commons license, you can download their demo here: http://www.severedfifth.com/releases/ This means that (like open source) it is free to download and share and even remix. However the Severed Fifth project does not stop there. Jono intends to make a huge world wide community around the band called the Street Team. Similar to Ubuntu Loco teams, the Street Team are advocates and fans of Severed Fifth, who spread the word as well as share and create content based on free culture. I am actually the founder of a Pennsylvania local Street Team. The following link explains a good bit more about the Street Team. Be sure to check out the video as well.
http://www.severedfifth.com/streetteam/

Severed Fifth also currently needs your help. They are recording an professional quality full length album and they almost have enough money to do so. The album, as with all of their music will be creative commons. It is Jono's goal to bring a real professional quality album out only with freedom and a community of fans behind it. The Severed Fifth community is working towards the belief that people should be able to enjoy music without worrying about being a criminal if they listen to and share it. You can check the status of the funds, or donate what you think is fair at: http://www.severedfifth.com/pay/

Quite a few local Street Teams have already formed, and a list of them and contact information of the team leaders can be found on the Severed Fifth Wiki: http://severedfifth.wikia.com/wiki/StreetTeams

Also on the Wiki is a lot of information regarding creating your own local team which you would certainly be welcome to do. Though if you do so, please get in touch with either me or Jono so we can feature the new teams forming on the Severed Fifth news page! Information regarding creating a team has recently been added to the wiki here: http://severedfifth.wikia.com/wiki/StreetTeams/CreateTeam

Some current events that are popular in the community are Jono's weekly live video casts and Q&A, which happen right after the Ubuntu Q&A. Anyone can take part in these casts, where other community members can chat and ask Jono questions which he will answer live. He also will keep everyone up to date with news of the band and community. The casts take place every Wednesday at 3pm Eastern/8pm UTC at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/severed-fifth-live-in-the-studio You do need a free ustream account to chat, however the stream can be viewed regardless.

Severed Fifth also has an IRC channel, where a lot of the work and discussion about Severed Fifth takes place daily. You can join the IRC by going to this link: http://www.severedfifth.com/streetteam/chat/ Or joining #severedfifth at irc.freenode.net on your favourite IRC client.

Also feel free to join the official forum and introduce yourself. http://www.severedfifth.com/forum/ The forum is a place where you can chat about pretty much anything (keep it clean folks :) ). A lot of discussion about the band, life, and metal in general takes place there, and it is a lot of fun. My nick on there is "vbrummond", as it is in IRC as well. A lot of the Severed Fifth community are from the Ubuntu Loco teams as well, chances are you will find someone you know!

Rock on, and I hope to see you there. \m/

[NightwishFan]

No one likes metal? :guitar: :)

[spoons]

Not bad, not quite my metal sound personally, good shout all the same!

/needs obligatory metal ballad. :D:P

[wilee-nilee]

As a fellow musician I like it, more bass drum please.:)

[NightwishFan]

As a fellow musician I like it, more bass drum please.:)

Youll have to check out the new album. ;) It is due out very soon.

edit: Ill note for clarity I am not in the band, just a community member.

[Chronon]

:guitar:

I will donate when I am able.

[NightwishFan]

Thanks! It is much appreciated.

[Dustin2128]

Not bad, not bad at all. A definite addition to my music library.

[Khakilang]

That's not bad. Although I don't really listen to metal music now but I try to help.

[RATM_Owns]

I heard clean vocals and immediately exited and unpaused Suffocation.

Some of the guitar riffs are pretty cool, but it doesn't sound like my kind of metal.

[RiceMonster]

Sorry, it sounded pretty plain to me as far as metal goes. It's pretty hard to impress me with metal these days. Regardless though, good job making the music on his own.


I heard clean vocals and immediately exited and unpaused Suffocation.

haha.

[BrokenKingpin]

I like what I have heard from the samples on their website. I am downloading the full demo now.

[NightwishFan]

I like what I have heard from the samples on their website. I am downloading the full demo now.

Awesome, enjoy. They just had an awesome show friday, I am not sure if any videos are going up on the youtube channel or not. Also keep your eye out for the new album. It should be out in probably less than a month or two. :)

[sffvba[e0rt]

Oh wow... I have thought that a thread for this must have been posted months ago on here... and that it had died out by now... clearly I was mistaken (thank you Google for getting this link on your first page of results!!)

I am uber excited about the band and there future... Sure, this is not everyones cup of tea music wise but the philosophy the band is promoting is definitely worth supporting!


Rock on!
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[NightwishFan]

Rock on!
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Hi 404 (not found), do you hang out in our irc or forums? If not, you should do so, you would be welcome to! :)

[sffvba[e0rt]

Hi 404 (not found), do you hang out in our irc or forums? If not, you should do so, you would be welcome to! :)

Oh, you know me from IRC and the forums (and now you know me by yet another name... come on I dare you to guess who, oh btw, we are missing you on #severedfifth at the moment) ;)


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Tried leaving you a message on your profile but I don't have enough posts yet :/

[NightwishFan]

Ah I see! Cool. :)

[giddyup306]

The music itself is pretty good! As a musician myself, I usually only hear lead and rhythm guitars along with the vocals. The wide range of the vocals kill the music tho. If you're going to do growling vocals, do growling vocals. If you're going to do clean vocals, do clean vocals. They just don't mix together. Bands like Nightrage do the same thing. When Thomas does vocals, they are amazing. I have to skip songs when they do both. In addition, the growling vocals that Severed Fifth does sounds too American Brutal Death Metalley. Americans can't do Death Metal right, then it sound even worse when they try and mix the clean vocals in.

Don't get me wrong, there is still a lot of talent in the band. I've listened to about half of the first album, and will continue to listen to this one as well as the next.

[NightwishFan]

Americans can't do Death Metal right

Ouch. Note Jono Bacon is from england. :D Thanks for the review though, it is appreciated.

[steveneddy]

Sounds like the other 10,000 metal bands out there.

What do you tell a metal guitar player at 11:00 at night?

Thanks for the pizza, dude!

[NightwishFan]

Thanks for the pizza, dude!

A most wondrous and enlightening post as always. Forgive me if I do not get the joke or care. :P

[Shmantiv_Radio]

Not bad, but it's very by the numbers generic to say the least.

[Shmantiv_Radio]

Not bad, but it's very by the numbers generic to say the least.

Actually that's just at Nightmares by Design. Denied by Reign is a lot better, if still a little generic in parts.

[NightwishFan]

Actually that's just at Nightmares by Design. Denied by Reign is a lot better, if still a little generic in parts.

Give some of their live shows a go as all the demos are done from a home studio. The upcoming album will be professionally done.

http://www.youtube.com/user/severedfifth

[Shmantiv_Radio]

Give some of their live shows a go as all the demos are done from a home studio. The upcoming album will be professionally done.

http://www.youtube.com/user/severedfifth


The upcoming album is the one that sounds so generic. The older stuff is loads better.

[NightwishFan]

I know what you meant. Though since the demo most of the songs are rewritten, and sometimes a bit of it comes out in the recent live shows.

[Shmantiv_Radio]

I know what you meant. Though since the demo most of the songs are rewritten, and sometimes a bit of it comes out in the recent live shows.


The clean vocals are terrible to be honest. That Bacon guy isn't exactly Christian Älvestam.

[NightwishFan]

Let it be noted I was not trying to convince you to like the music, just some links to the newer stuff.

I hope they can win you over though, I think they rock. :)

[Shmantiv_Radio]

Let it be noted I was not trying to convince you to like the music, just some links to the newer stuff.

I hope they can win you over though, I think they rock. :)

Less rude reply? lol

As I've pretty much said, the older stuff with the growls (which the vocalist can do fine) is pretty decent. The new album however is very cooker cutter thrash-lite, and the clean vocals mostly suck.

Although at the end of the day, it's just one persons opinion. :P

[NightwishFan]

Yeah, i just came off as a bit forward, where I did not intend to be, so I edited. :) Glad you like the one demo, hopefully we will see a bit of it resurface some time. :)

[sffvba[e0rt]

Variety is the spice of life... I for one find a lot of what Severed Fifth is doing harks back to the sounds of some of my favorite bands of the 80's with a little more edge sometimes.

This is doubly confirmed when I hear them cover some of those bands music (Like The Trooper by Iron Maiden) when it fits their style so naturally.

I too enjoy the first album a lot, but appreciate the direction taken by the second one and can't wait to here it with the right amount of polish it deserves... It will be (IMO) AWESOME!


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[sffvba[e0rt]

$1400 to go on the recording campaign... so close... so very very close... :guitar:


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