Bullshit. Metal is probably at it’s best point in the last three years than it’s been since 1986. If you take the sheer enormity of records being issued across all of the sub-genres and the fact that I can watch death metal videos on demand on Comcast there’s no way to call metal anything even close to dead. I can’t think of a time before 2010 where a small, mostly underground black metal band like Watain could issue a special limited edition boxset of their new album at $80 a pop and expect to sell more than maybe 10 of them.
However Voivod indeed kicks ass, so I’ll agree with you there.
Wow! Nice list being compiled here!
I just wanted to add that Exciter is working on a new album, and Anvil is touring after the success of their film! Both bands are forefathers of metal as we know it!
Also, got my Maiden tickets last week! Woo Hoo! Up the Irons!
Yeah, the metal scene has waaaaaay more going on right now than ever before. For the last 5 years in particular we’ve had not only stunning new music (Lamb Of God, Mastodon, Ihsahn, Baroness, , but old bands putting out their best material ever (Slayer, Exodus, Testament, Overkill, Kreator, etc.). This is the best time to be a headbanger ever, IMO.
You know what’s funny about Voivod tho? I think Katorz is their best album. I wasn’t into them much at all, but I grabbed that when Tower Records was going out of business and I love it.
Maybe dead isn’t the right word. I just feel like its turned into a genre plagued by hipster doofuses and posers who absolutely pale in comparison to groups that formed 20 to 30 years ago.
But funny you should mention death metal. I could probably count on my hands the number of dm bands post-1995 who have actually done something interesting and exciting with the genre, as opposed to playing music that was written 15 years earlier or trying to out-“tough guy” the next band. Death metal belongs to Morbid Angel, Atheist, Master, Immolation, etc., just as metal in general belongs to the bands from way back when. My opinion, again.
Aaaaaand you had to go and mention Lamb of God. The music is sick, but Randy Blythe is the worst vocalist in the game today and very present in the mix so therefore Lamb of God is terrible. Baroness is really good ( Blue is on my iPod as I write this) but they’re kind of Mastodon lite.
They’re not metal at all, but everyone should listen to Clutch’s newest, Strange Cousins from the West. Clutch is the second greatest rock band of all time after Motorhead.
I can’t straight out disagree with you. Death Metal is a very limiting genre since fans only want rehashes of the glory days, although Deicide’s The Stench of Redemption from 2006 is worth listening to since it has both Jack Owen from Cannibal Corpse and Ralph Santolla of both Iced Earth and Death fame, but things like technical death and brutal death continue to push boundaries. Cephalic Carnage is putting out some amazing records as is Despised Icon and Nile. Job for a Cowboy might be deathmetalcore or something, but they also bring a fresh approach to the concept.
Another one mentioned in a previous metal thread by SB, that I picked up and loved, was Katatonia. I think the first record or two has screaming vocals, but if I read right, the singer blew his voice out, and now sings much more melodically.
Oh boy, I hope I can say this without sounding like a dick…
Chakra, I know that one problem with listening to metal can be finding new metal. I spend a lot of time and money on it, but one of the best sources for info I’ve yet seen is Metal Hammer magazine. I’ve mentioned them here before, and my blog has a link to their site as well. Between the literally hundreds of bands they write about every issue, each issue also comes with at least 1 CD, sometimes 2 or 1 CD & 1 DVD. I hear at least 15 new tracks just from that CD every month, plus I can go to their website and find stuff from bands I read about in the mag.
Lately they’ve been doing a lot to focus on bands from non-English speaking countries, and I gotta tell you, there’s some cool shit being done metal in places like India, Gibraltar, Malta, and Iraq.
Also, check out my review of Ihsahn’s new album on my blog. Death metal isn’t dead, a lot of people are taking it in exciting new directions.
Totally agree. I can only really listen to their first album, New American Gospel, and to the old Burn The Priest stuff. But I’ve seen them a couple of times because they were out with Mastodon or Hatebreed or someone else, and they put on a decent enough live show.
Agree. I loved the first album, thought I’d like the harder crunch of Blue even more, but found that it hits me like Crack The Skye does: I can’t recall the songs at all, but some of the riffs are great.
Aye, I love me some Clutch. One of very few bands I will even consider traveling to see live.
Glad you like them! Their latest album didn’t live up to the hype for me, but the more I listen to it, the more it seems to sink into the folds of my brain. I catch myself remembering riffs and vocals because of something else I hear randomly, and then I just want to listen to the album again.
For me, that’s the secret ingredient in songwriting: being able to write a great song is one thing, but knowing how to write that song in such a way that everyone who hears it will want to hear it again is genius.
Don’t worry, Bo. I’m usually pretty willing and able to find new metal.
I’m not a fan of Ihsahn’s solo material, but if you enjoy it then that’s good. But it isn’t death metal, and death metal is dead. Bands like Dead Congregation, Funebrarum, Ignivomous and so on are all excellent at what they do, but it’s been done time and time again. But all these melodic/brutal/progressive/tech death metal bands that are flooding the scene have stripped death metal of its soul, sacrificing raw neanderthal aggression for sterile musicianship. Nothing will ever stand up to the old school, even with a select few albums like Mithras - Worlds Beyond the Veil scoring modern bands a few points here and there.
No, it’s isn’t death metal; I said, people are taking that music to new places and Ihsahn is just one of them.
Do you listen to any stoner or doom? Not all of it is mellow, ya know.
From the sound of it, you might know these bands, but others prolly don’t, and they definitely fit the definition of “not sacrificing raw neanderthal aggression for sterile musicianship”.
Iron Monkey - Fink Dial (really wish I could find a decent version of Supagorgonizer… greatest riff ever!)
Speaking of Ihsahn, I hope serious musicologists will one day forget their prejudices about metal (“it’s nothing but noise !”) and analyze Emperor’s music. There’s so much that could be written about it.
Now you’re talking! Yeah, I listen to stoner/doom/drone once in a while and those genres are still going strong. I don’t mean to come off as if all I listen to is death metal, in fact I don’t even listen to metal that much anymore unless something new catches my attention. But first wave black metal, old school death and thrash metal, and doom of all shapes and sizes will always satisfy.
Nice name drop. Mithras is an excellent band, and Worlds is a brutal album.
I think that Death Metal is kind of where Black Metal was 6 or so years ago where they’re hitting the limits of what can really be done while adhering to the core components. Bands like Opeth are definately changing the game since Opeth is allowed to get away with damned near anything by their rightfully rabid fanbase. Some of the stuff on Ghost Reveries and Watershed are startling in the amount of experimental stuff that’s going on with the death metal portions of songs.
I do think that the genre is going to have a real break out new direction record coming in the next 6-18 months that will be roundly hated on the internet but that will go down as a huge turning point in the history of extreme metal. Again, like Bo keeps mentioning songwriting is going to be the big one here, there is a way to make death metal catchy (Carcass pulled it off with Heartwork and Corpse did it with a few of the riffs off The Bleeding) without making it weak and taking away it’s vital parts.
If you look at what Dark Funeral has pulled off with the top notch production values making Black Metal listenable, or what Darkthrone has done with pretty much becoming a black metal punk band the genre has taken a huge breath and gotten new territory to play in. The same thing is going to happen with Death Metal.
The whole “catchy death metal” thing too is being done REALLY well by Brendon Small and Gene the Machine with Dethklok, and back in the day Bolt Thrower did it with nearly every song.
Thanks man. I obviously spend a lot of time listening to, talking about, and thinking about metal and it’s fun to have an outlet that isn’t my friends praying for me to shut up about it so they can go back to discussing how great the new Dead Weather is. :rolleyes:
Brendon Small is really good, but…triggered drums and insanely compressed and overtracked guitars just don’t get me excited. If and when Dethklok ends I’d hope that he’d end up in a “real” band and then I could take it more seriously, but it’s a funny show and I’ll take any mainstreaming of death metal that I can get. Whatever brings 'em in.
