One of the best bands I’ve seen live, and one most people I know who are into metal have at least heard of. No mainstream penetration that I’m aware of.
I’m a fan of extreme metal, bluegrass and folk, among many other types of music. A lot of metal musicians I know at least appreciate the playing, even if they don’t like the music. This is not always true of the fans, however. Also, folk/metal crossover is one of the big things in underground metal in the last ten years or so. Here is Tyr doing a traditional Faeroese folk song, and here is Korpiklaani doing a folky style song of their own.
Oh, and another song about orcs, for no particularly good reason.
God as my witness, the bluegrass thing started in high school. Do have any idea how hard it is to want to listen to Bill Monroe when everyone else is masturbating to Pigface? And then to get shit for not being “open minded” enough to listen to the exact same music everyone else listened to? Which was probably a sign I was destined to be old and boring soon ASAP!
I completely agree about the “nöt dangerous and thoroughly mainstream” part. (Especially now that black metal has been embraced by hipsters.)
I don’t knöw about being a musical dead-end though. Every now and then a new band will appear, or an old band will come up with something new, and things will get shaken up for awhile. (True, this often unfortunately results in a glut of copycat bands beating the innovation to death.)
But the cycle of metal rölls on, and there’s always one or two really great albums that get released amidst all the yearly dreck.
Found a way to rid myself clean of pain
And the fever that’s been haunting me
Has gone away
Looking through my window
I seem to recognize
All the people passing by
But I am alone
And far from home
And nobody knows me
ATR isn’t a new band, but they have their first new album in almost 10 years coming out soon, and they still advocate for the overthrow of existing political, social and cultural orders. They use a unique blend of sounds at a tempo that makes even thrash sound slow.
Trouble is that these days, there’s no such thing as “metal” that you can speak about in this broad way. There are respectable mainstream crossovers like Opeth There’s epic wank replete with over-the-top lyrics and guitar showmanship like…well, I won’t name bands since I don’t want to hurt feelings. There’s the industrial/noise/black metal that Gnaw Their Tongues does. There’s black metal in a more traditional vein - groups like Darkthrone are still going strong, and musicians like Xasthur are creating some of the best music since 2000, period. Then there are intriguing variations on aspects of the genre: the cryptic, sinister group of bands calling themselves the Black Twilight Circle, or Mount Eerie’s appropriations of metal tropes on Wind’s Poem from a couple years back, or the hypnotic barrage of last year’s Ash Borer/Fell Voices split.
Ultimately, it’s fine if you think metal isn’t your thing, but seeing someone dismiss the genre just makes me think “…longer than we thought.”
I used to work with an Albanian fellow who absolutely loved Manowar.
I once made the mistake of telling him we used to get pumped up to Heart of Steel in HS football. After that he was always bringing me Manowar Cd’s and songs. They sure had a fascination with war. One song would be about killing your enemy and then banging his women, the next would be a totally different song about banging your enemy’s woman and then killing him.
On the other end of the spectrum I had a very good friend that was huge into Pantera, and it’s offshoots, Superjoint Ritual and DamagePlan. Metal is such a wide umbrella that these bands can sound absolutely nothing alike and fall under the heading of metal. I think with such a wide spectrum that someone if they really tried could find a subgenre or group that fit them. Whether it’s worth the effort or not is up to you.
Like I said, Zep basically invented heavy metal (along with some other contemporary groups), although that’s not the only music they played. The genre became more narrowly defined later on.
