Scorpions legend Uli Jon Roth claims metal is “not my cup of tea” because it’s “two-dimensional” and “lacks dynamics”
It’s undeniable that Uli Jon Roth’s influence on metal music is substantial, with genre legends like Kirk Hammett, Marty Friedman and others calling him an inspiration.
But despite also once playing guitar in German hard rock outfit Scorpions, Roth actually isn’t the biggest fan of metal music.
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In a new conversation on the Scars and Guitars podcast, Roth explains that during his tenure in the band between 1973 and 1978, “the name heavy metal barely existed”.
“I’m not a metal guy,” he explains [via Blabbermouth]. “When I was in the Scorpions and the name heavy metal barely existed, we were considered, if you want to classify it, as a melodic hard rock band.
“So, metal, the name, came afterwards, and then it became something which is actually not my cup of tea. Most metal, for me, is just a little bit too hardcore, a little bit too distorted, and, for me, maybe a bit two-dimensional. And what I mean by that is the lack of dynamics.”
He continues: “I come from a time, like in the ‘60s when I first started, in the ‘70s, where even loud bands played with a lot of dynamics. People like Led Zeppelin, [Jimi] Hendrix, Cream, they were loud on stage with the amplifiers, but they were actually very dynamical in it. The guitars, the drums, everything with dynamical.
Roth opines that due to the inherent distortion associated with heavy metal music, a lot of these dynamics he’s a fan of were lost.
“That gradually went away and everything went to 11 all the time – the guitar constantly hyper distorted, every drum beat fortissimo – and for me, it’s very often more like a cacophony. So I’m not a fan. There are some metal things that are excellent and great – absolutely – but on the whole, it’s not something I like to listen to. It’s not my world.”
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