The Five Most Bombastic Rock Acts of All-Time?

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And ironically bombastic doesnt really count in my book...

― Tinky-Winky, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 18:39 (eighteen years ago)

Yes, circa Topographic Oceans...

― henry s, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 18:53 (eighteen years ago)

Queen, The Who, Yes, U2. (ELP could be swapped in, too, for any of the others.)

All UK acts. UK has it all over US in bombast. Only Manowar, a marginal seller, does bombast as well as Brits. Perhaps it why they had an album called Hail to England.

― Gorge, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 19:10 (eighteen years ago)

If this isn't it I don't know what is:

Awesome!

― everything, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 19:11 (eighteen years ago)

Styx (or, rather, Dennis DeYoung) was fairly bombastic around the time of Paradise Theater...fellow North Americans Rush (or, rather, Neil Peart's drum kit) was/is also pretty bombastic...

― henry s, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 19:13 (eighteen years ago)

How does David Lee Roth era Van Halen rate in all of this?

― Tinky-Winky, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 19:23 (eighteen years ago)

Public Enemy, surely (unless we're being pedantic about the term "Rock")

― Myonga Vön Bontee, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 19:25 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah, Paradise Theater Styx is a decent contender. So is Mr. Roboto, infamous for being severely bottled during a tour with Sammy Hagar.

DLR Van Halen = macho. Saw 'em, were great, not necessarily bombastic.

― Gorge, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 19:27 (eighteen years ago)

http://covers.allofmp3.com/covers/s1/shaggy/1995_-_boombastic/cover.jpg

― Geir Hongro, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 21:24 (eighteen years ago)

Styx?

― Mr. Que, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 21:27 (eighteen years ago)

wait, Styx?

― Mr. Que, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 21:28 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.cyberware.fi/shop/covers/laibach.jpg

― Noodle Vague, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 21:34 (eighteen years ago)

G N F'N R

― nickalicious, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 21:53 (eighteen years ago)

DLR Van Halen = macho. Saw 'em, were great, not necessarily bombastic.

Cant you be macho and bombastic at the same time?

Public Enemy, surely (unless we're being pedantic about the term "Rock")

Public Enemy is not Rock. Deal with it!

― Tinky-Winky, Thursday, 3 May 2007 01:09 (eighteen years ago)

Gotta be Queen.

― John Justen, Thursday, 3 May 2007 01:12 (eighteen years ago)

Uh. oh yeah, 5, I'll get back to this later.

― John Justen, Thursday, 3 May 2007 01:13 (eighteen years ago)

I second Meat Loaf. Dream Theater might also be a contender. Rhapsody of Fire are pretty over the top as well. Are we counting metal acts here?

― Jeff Treppel, Thursday, 3 May 2007 01:13 (eighteen years ago)

kiss or something
pink floyd

― Charlie Howard, Thursday, 3 May 2007 01:57 (eighteen years ago)

Meat Loaf definitely made the biggest mountains out of a molehill batch of songs. ELP comes close. I think you can live up to your bombastic pretensions. They didn't.

― bendy, Thursday, 3 May 2007 03:28 (eighteen years ago)

i saw meatloaf on dancing with the stars last night. there were a few moments where i thought he might be lip synching.

― Emily Bjurnhjam, Thursday, 3 May 2007 03:53 (eighteen years ago)

haha

my friend owns 'welcome to the neighbourhood' by meatloaf and sincerely likes it.

he hasn't convinced me, but it's fun to listen to when you're getting pissed or something

I WANT MY MONEY BACK!

― Charlie Howard, Thursday, 3 May 2007 04:02 (eighteen years ago)

Boston, if only for "More than a Feeling". Wikipedia tells me it took 7 years to write!

― badg, Thursday, 3 May 2007 04:11 (eighteen years ago)

See, I read this as bombastic without really the goods to back it up.

Queen were bombastic, but FUCKING AWESOME. (Styx, not so much)

I have to go (a bit arbitrarily):

ELP
Yes (although they were pretty good as these things go and I have a lot of love for Steve Howe, per Tomorrow and Bodast)
Atomic Rooster
Renaissance
Gentle Giant
Seemingly the wrath of bombast is primarily British...

― Saxby D. Elder, Thursday, 3 May 2007 04:19 (eighteen years ago)

after listening to the latest release - definitely Rufus Wainwright

― nonightsweats, Thursday, 3 May 2007 06:46 (eighteen years ago)

shaggy

― chaki, Thursday, 3 May 2007 06:55 (eighteen years ago)

hmmmm, mebbe:

uriah heep
jerry lee lewis
the scorpions
hasil adkins
iron maiden

― Mike McGooney-gal, Thursday, 3 May 2007 07:00 (eighteen years ago)

Rammstein!

― Soukesian, Thursday, 3 May 2007 07:05 (eighteen years ago)

Sparks

― Zeno, Thursday, 3 May 2007 07:37 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.gballard.net/port/backstage/gtshagi/gtshag_01.jpg

― the next grozart, Thursday, 3 May 2007 09:42 (eighteen years ago)

My Chemical Romance, Rhapsody

― the next grozart, Thursday, 3 May 2007 09:42 (eighteen years ago)

Laibach

― Tom D., Thursday, 3 May 2007 09:43 (eighteen years ago)

Only one winner tho:

http://www.progressiverock.com/images/magma.jpg

― Tom D., Thursday, 3 May 2007 09:44 (eighteen years ago)

Those Magmans look SERIOUSLY pissed off about something.

― Soukesian, Thursday, 3 May 2007 10:21 (eighteen years ago)

They had to look that way else they'd be thrown out the band

― Tom D., Thursday, 3 May 2007 10:21 (eighteen years ago)

how bout GWAR?

― Tinky-Winky, Thursday, 3 May 2007 18:41 (eighteen years ago)

The Tubes?

― henry s, Thursday, 3 May 2007 18:45 (eighteen years ago)

you say ironically bombastic doesn't count and then suggest gwar?

― pretzel walrus, Thursday, 3 May 2007 18:46 (eighteen years ago)

well its a fine line between seriously bombastic and ironically bombastic, is it not?

― Tinky-Winky, Thursday, 3 May 2007 18:54 (eighteen years ago)

off the top of my head~

little richard
aphrodite's child
magma
eloy
dragonforce

― kamerad, Thursday, 3 May 2007 19:02 (eighteen years ago)

what, no hawkwind?

― Edward III, Thursday, 3 May 2007 19:08 (eighteen years ago)

VANILLA FUDGE VANILLA FUDGE VANILLA FUDGE

They helped invent rock-and-roll bombast.

― QuantumNoise, Thursday, 3 May 2007 19:12 (eighteen years ago)

hawkwind have their moments. they're more hypnotic than bombastic, though, don't you think?

― kamerad, Thursday, 3 May 2007 20:15 (eighteen years ago)

hm "i am the center of this universe" i dunno

― pretzel walrus, Thursday, 3 May 2007 20:17 (eighteen years ago)

god damn they are the best band, srsly

― pretzel walrus, Thursday, 3 May 2007 20:30 (eighteen years ago)

the 80s band Black 'N Blue had an outstanding song titled "Bombastic Plastic", but they were not particularly bombastic, all things considered.

― EZ Snappin, Thursday, 3 May 2007 21:06 (eighteen years ago)

led zep!
phil spector!
beyonce!
metallica!
prince!
the shangri las!
the supremes!
mariah carey!
the temptations!
aerosmith!
spiritualized!

debatable bombast:
moreso solo danzig, but perhaps even the misfits? lean bombast, but bombast nonetheless. i can't think of a more operatic early punk band, but maybe I'm just thinking of those oh-wo-woah-ho anvil choruses.

my bloody valentine? live especially there was a sensory overload element to them that felt almost aggressive to me, but then they have this really trippy freeform ego-less thing that seems anti-bombast

funkadelic, hawkwind, blue cheer? again maybe too freakouty and parodic for true bombast throughout, but moments of pomp abound in some heavy shit, i think ultimatley i'd say non-bombast though

fugazi? again not exatly bombast but there's something definitely epic going on there

nirvana? or maybe its just the terrible dated gimmicky butch vig underwater melting guitars + BIG! DRUMS! but damn quite bombastic and not in such a great way.

the clipse? + tons of other old neptunes shit. in fact, in recent years bombast seems more like a producer's stamp than an artist's... pharrell, rich harrison, puffy during bad boy's hey-day, missy, timbaland have all pushed things into bombastic territory - and even further back: the bomb squad, dre, trevor horn, shadow morton, phil spector, norman whitfield, HDH, etc etc

― fritz, Thursday, 3 May 2007 21:41 (eighteen years ago)

Not a single person says AC/DC ...huh ...

― BlackIronPrison, Thursday, 3 May 2007 22:05 (eighteen years ago)

AC/DC are too finely tuned.

― QuantumNoise, Thursday, 3 May 2007 22:07 (eighteen years ago)

i think they're a little earthy and efficient to be bombastic. there's not much pompous about ac/dc. overblown & cartoonish maybe, but not so much bombastic to me, anyway.

― fritz, Thursday, 3 May 2007 22:07 (eighteen years ago)

I think y'all have odd and fluid definitions of bombast.

― I eat cannibals, Thursday, 3 May 2007 22:58 (eighteen years ago)

So according to this thread Bombast can not be earthy or macho, but it shoudl be epic...
WHat else?

― Tinky-Winky, Friday, 4 May 2007 01:14 (eighteen years ago)

to me, bombast means ostentatious, showy, overblown, over-the-top, pompous, intending to produce an awed or overwhelmed response in the listener by all means neccessary - even if it means going too far... kind of asshole-ish and phony actually...but that can be great in pop music, so it's not a totally bad thing even in those terms.
ac/dc is loud and kind of brutal but I think they have too much of a sense of humour about themselves to be truly bombastic.
what about andrew wk? springsteen? bowie?

― fritz, Friday, 4 May 2007 01:25 (eighteen years ago)

a chunk of van der graaf is total bombast

― QuantumNoise, Friday, 4 May 2007 01:47 (eighteen years ago)

i think some of those early symphonic tunes from neil young could be called earthy bombast

― QuantumNoise, Friday, 4 May 2007 01:48 (eighteen years ago)

ac/dc is loud and kind of brutal but I think they have too much of a sense of humour about themselves to be truly bombastic.

They sing about "Big balls" and their lead guitar player dresses in school boy short...no, they obviously dont have a sense of humor at all...

― Tinky-Winky, Monday, 7 May 2007 00:51 (eighteen years ago)

I have a related question btw, is it possible for a hardcore punk band to be bombastic???

― Tinky-Winky, Monday, 7 May 2007 00:53 (eighteen years ago)

I have a related question as well: are you Paul Edward Wagemann?

― vodka chthonic, Monday, 7 May 2007 00:57 (eighteen years ago)

Don't know about hardcore, but I think Nightwish own this thread.

― Jeff Treppel, Monday, 7 May 2007 01:02 (eighteen years ago)

lots of power metal i guess

blind guardian, sonata arctica etc.

― Charlie Howard, Monday, 7 May 2007 04:35 (eighteen years ago)

Nice call on the Aphrodite's Child!! I wish I had remembered them (for this express purpose).

― Saxby D. Elder, Monday, 7 May 2007 04:52 (eighteen years ago)

Zeppelin owns because they were so good at being bombastic that people tend to forget that they were.

― mulla atari, Monday, 7 May 2007 04:58 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah some distinctions and subdivisions of bombast need to be made. I'd start by dividing between serious and campy (a.k.a. ironic) bombast. Rammstein, Laibach, Meatloaf and even Queen always seemed deliberately campy to me. Serious bombast (a.k.a. opaque) might include Bruce Springsteen and stretch even to....The Clash ("the only band that matters").

― Rich Smörgasbord, Monday, 7 May 2007 05:35 (eighteen years ago)

"The only band that matters" was probably a marketing slogan. I suppose political posturing is a form of bombast, though--especially in the case of a certain triple LP.

― mulla atari, Monday, 7 May 2007 06:03 (eighteen years ago)

I mean--when it results in the recording of triple LPs.

― mulla atari, Monday, 7 May 2007 06:04 (eighteen years ago)

Bombast is cotton wadding added to gunpowder; bombast is Wagner's Also Spracht Zarathustra, where the point of the music is to be big and to succeed on bigness. It also implies unnecessary or shallow songwriting— the "It goes to 11" Spinal Tap.

Because of all of that? Yeah, Queen. But yeah also to AC/DC, Led Zep, hell, even Sabbath. And certainly to folks like Audioslave and Smashing Pumpkins.

― I eat cannibals, Monday, 7 May 2007 06:19 (eighteen years ago)

Also, anything with endless arpeggios, though I think that's more house music— there's that strain, which I can hear in my head now but am not versed enough in techno argot, which is, like, all crescendo and arpeggios, and a DJ'll play a set of practically that alone— that's bombast.

― I eat cannibals, Monday, 7 May 2007 06:21 (eighteen years ago)

"the only band that matters" was a bit of hype for The Clash; true. They were earnest, though. There were a whole bunch of earnest bands around that time like The Alarm, Midnight Oil. etc. It's a good question, whether that can be considered "bombastic" or not.

― Rich Smörgasbord, Monday, 7 May 2007 06:27 (eighteen years ago)

Also Spracht Zarathustra was R. Strauss

― Curt1s Stephens, Monday, 7 May 2007 06:32 (eighteen years ago)

Though I imagine Wagner's *would* be more bombastic.

― Curt1s Stephens, Monday, 7 May 2007 06:32 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah it probably would. That's why Nietzsche fell out with Wagner. He thought Wagner was too gauche and over-the-top. Maybe that's a definition of "bombastic".

― Rich Smörgasbord, Monday, 7 May 2007 06:41 (eighteen years ago)

BTW, I love Wagner

― Rich Smörgasbord, Monday, 7 May 2007 06:44 (eighteen years ago)

The Fall.

Feel the wrath.

― SeekAltRoute, Monday, 7 May 2007 09:54 (eighteen years ago)

love 'em, but still:

Rotary Connection
Isaac Hayes
Scott Walker
Flaming Lips
Butthole Surfers

― henry s, Monday, 7 May 2007 12:59 (eighteen years ago)

I saw Heaven and Hell (dio sabbath reunion last nite)...They own this thread.

― M@tt He1ges0n, Monday, 7 May 2007 15:39 (eighteen years ago)

dio definately has a great voice for bombast

― Tinky-Winky, Monday, 7 May 2007 17:33 (eighteen years ago)

G N F'N R

-- nickalicious, Wednesday, May 2, 2007 4:53 PM (4 days ago)

OTM

― nickalicious, Monday, 7 May 2007 18:45 (eighteen years ago)

It seems sort of silly to bicker about whether or not The Clash are bombastic when you have stuff like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgbYrCohczw or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUqKHfFBk2E (plus the latter is over a poorly done Van Helsing video).

― Jeff Treppel, Monday, 7 May 2007 23:58 (eighteen years ago)

G N F'N R

Not really.

― Tinky-Winky, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 17:54 (eighteen years ago)

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