I hate to give only a short list after vtynos’s epic, but I always find this kind of thing hard to write. The history lesson is probably interesting, but will have to wait for another day. Here’s a quick rundown of what I consider the essential metal albums of the last ten years:
[ul][li]Arcturus, La Masquerade Infernale. Between Arcturus and Ulver, Garm is probably the single person most responsible for the marriage of extreme and experimental musics, and this is arguably where it all started. The black metal roots are showing here, but this is more informed by the circus than the devil. Arcturus is also notable for being Hellhammer’s other band.[/li][li]Ulver, Nattens Madrigal. It doesn’t get any blacker than this. Legend holds that the album was recorded in a forest on an eight-track, but I sincerely doub it. This is the third in a trilogy, after Bergtatt and Kveldssanger, and it’s worth it to hear all three.[/li][li]Therion, Theli. This is the second middle period Therion album, and generally regarded as their best. This album is close to what Celtic Frost was trying to do before their career fell apart.[/li][li]Neurosis, A Sun That Never Sets. These guys owe as much to Pink Floyd as any of their death metal forebears. Think long, slow and heavy songs. While this may or may not be their essential album, there’s little doubt that Neurosis did spawn an entire new movement.[/li][li]Isis, Oceanic. Isis are the foremost students of Neurosis and have surpassed their teachers. This is without a doubt the best driving album of all time.[/li][li]Death, The Sound Of Perseverance. Anyone who claims to love music must hear this. If you only know Death from their early career, you’re missing quite a bit.[/li][li]Anathema, Judgement. Their last metal album before they went on to become the best modern rock band that no one listens to. The sequence of “Parisienne Moonlight” and “Judgement” is amazing. Their latest, A Natural Disaster, is also fantastic and would appeal strongly to fans of OK Computer.[/li][li]Mastodon, Leviathan. In five years the alternative metal scene will be filled with Mastodon clones because of this album.[/li][li]Rhapsody, Symphony Of Enchanted Lands II. Think Helloween with one of the best guitar players in the business and a full orchestra. Also, they somehow got Christopher Lee to do voice acting on this one.[/li][li]SUNN 0))), Flight Of The Behemoth. This is more noise than music, but it’s fantastic noise. The 12-minute arrangement of “For Whom The Bell Tolls” is worth hearing.[/li][li]Khanate, Things Viral. If you’re a fan of the later works of Samuel Beckett, you’ll love this. Otherwise, you might not.[/li][li]Ephel Duath, The Painter’s Palette. This one’s for the John Zorn fans out there.[/ul][/li]
Mind you, this list shouldn’t be taken to represent anything other than some of my favorites.
What do you know about Avenged Seven Fold, 'filter? A friend just played me a 30 second snippet from a song off “City of Evil,” and it sounded pretty good.
Not much to say here except for two or three sideways notes.
A: As you know, Black Sabbath grew out of a jazz band, anyhow. And you’re almost entirely right about nobody after them doing it any better, and them not doing anything some old blues wailer did before. The major difference in Sabbath is that they did it much much louder. If there’s one significantly different thing, that’s it. It does matter, though.
B: Don’t forget the significant orchestral rock influence. Starting with Apocalyptica’s breaking into my point of view with Plays Metallica with Four Cellos and leading to S&M, of course, there’s been a strong and fairly european orchestral goth rock thing. Goblin, Luca Torill, and, of course, Evanescence. I’ve been listening to their first album for something like a year in my car and I havn’t gotten tired of it yet. (Admittedly, it’s in the CD changer, but still not tired)
Of course, it all goes back to the Beatles… after all, the first heavy metal song was about hanging around on a playground slide. When you get to the bottom you go back to the top…
I kinda disagree - I would say that the most important thing was that Tommy Iommi lost the tips of his fretting fingers (a couple of them anyway) in a manufacturing accident. Because of that, and the fact that the fingers were still healing, led him to de-tune his guitar so the string tension was a lot less and he could fret with less pain. While detuning is rampant with nu-metal, it was unheard of at the time and no one did it for years and years after. That de-tuned sound is much more dark and creepy, and lent itself to the more goth riffs and phrasing they ended up using in their songs.
That fortuitous accident completely changed how the Sabs wrote songs and sounded. Hmmm…I may have to start a thread on serendipity.
I remember watching an interview with one of the guys from Deep Purple in one of VH1’s various list shows. He was talking about Led Zeppelin, and said that up until he heard them, he thought being heavy was just a matter of playing louder than everyone else. Needless to say, he changed his tune as soon as he heard someone who was properly doing heavy.
Good points, both, but they came later. The first thing was the volume. I’ve got an interview… I’ve got the memory of reading an interview of them in their really early days… first year or so, and that was their big point, how they had to play it at full volume.
The detuning is a really good point, though. Did anyone do that before them?
To my knowledge - without doing further research right now - the answer is no. Lots of guitarist will tune down their guitars a half-step - to play with heavier-gauge strings but still be able to bend - but that is differnt. Tommy was detuning by 1-1/2 to 2 steps and fundamentally changing the the tonal characteristics of the guitar. Some guys might do tricks detuning a string during a song, but I don’t know of anyone setting up the guitar to be in, say, C#, and that driving a different sound or songwriting approach.
You’ve described my own musical ebb/flow/evolution precisely, we could probably burn hours away in a pub together arguing about whether XTC or Love and Rockets were the superior band…
On that note, the iPod revolution has gotten me listening and buying music again, after not buying anything new since 1995 or so.
Some more recent faves post-'95 faves I’ve found that harken back to the heady fresh newness of the old-school punk and new wave days…
Cibo Matto–Japanese girl trip-hop. Ultra fun.
Massive Attack–Great electric-jam rock
Hedningarna–A very exotically Norwegian electronic rock band that no one on earth seems to know about, I have no idea what their lyrics mean since they don’t sing in English, but they right very exciting and catchy music.
Martina Topley Bird–Woman with a sultry sexy voice, with excellent electro-pop music.
Nena–Yes, the “99 luftballon band” just released a new double-album that is fresh, modern, and amazing. I’ve been listening non-stop.
White Stripes–The whole world is gaga over them now, but don’t let the bandwagon steer you away from joining the masses, they are a fantastic band that deserves the hype they’re getting.
Take some Blues harmonica, add some Punk, and toss in a bit of Country for good measure and you get Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers. You’ve probably already heard the opening lines of their CB Song.
I have very similar musical tastes to some of you in this thread, and y’all inspired me to pick up a few new CDs this week, after I haven’t bought any new ones for a while. I got *The Best of Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers * in the mail (a very cheap eBay purchase!), and traded in a bunch of lame CDs at the local indie-hipster record store to get The Decemberists’ Picaresque and Belle and Sebastian’s 2-CD compilation Push Barman To Open Old Wounds, which collects some of their rarer EPs. Then yesterday I got thew new White Stripes album, Get Behind Me Satan, in the mail. I have a lot of great music to soak up in the next several days!
