BEST GAME EVER OF THE WEEK: “HINDER OR METAL?”

Taken from the medical files of an average Hinder fan.

We’ve made our feelings about Hinder pretty well-known around these parts, but poor Cosmo Lee has somehow just discovered the truly heinous creation that is so beloved by MENSA members the world over. But because Cosmo is apparently a much more even-keeled dude than either of us are, he hasn’t pitched a fit about the fact that this band’s popularity clearly signals the impending Apocalypse – rather, he’s having some fun at the band’s expense by running a pretty sweet contest at Invisible Oranges. Here’s the gist of it, as explained by Cosmo:

Hinder’s music is repulsive yet fascinating. It’s post-grunge like Nickelback and Creed, but with opportunistic feints at glam rock and metal: music-making by focus group. The result isn’t really music. It’s hooks, spiky haircuts, and airtight audio assemblages that embody the principle of “Don’t Bore Us, Get to the Chorus!” I am in awe of its ruthless efficiency.

Some metal bands are, too – namely Edguy and Sentenced, whose later records moved from metal to hard rock. They only wish they could write hits like Hinder. So I’ve put together 10 audio clips from Hinder, Edguy, and Sentenced. Your mission is to guess which band did which ones. DO NOT USE ANY RESOURCES OTHER THAN YOUR BRAIN. Don’t use MySpace, YouTube, Last.fm, audio recognition software, or even your own music collection. That’s no fun (not to mention needless work), and it’s cheating.

The winner gets this awesome Pushead book. But even if there weren’t a great prize involved, it is a lot of fun to listen to the samples and try and figure out the answers. To be honest, never having been a fan of any of the bands involved, it all sounds pretty much the same to me… but perhaps some of you will fare better. Give it a shot right here.

-AR