Is Metal alive and well?

Justin1982

Yo! So basically I kind of fell off the Metal wagon back in the early 00's somewhat. Got a job, was busy, laziness and so on and so forth. Kinda. Not sure really.

But I basically havent stumbled across any good metal the last few years apart from an amazing band called And So I Watch You From Afar.

It just seems to me that metal is kind of dead as a genre. Is it just me? Am I just out of the loop or what?
I mean like, back in the ninties and early naughties, one could turn on the radio or the TV and you'd come across some new band or song that just blew you away......every other week, even if it was a one hit wonder like Audioslave's "Like a Stone"
Nowadays I hear zilch! Not a feckin thing apart from stumbling upon And So I Watch You From Afar on the show Tommy and Hector had on RTE.
All I see these days is Simon Cowell, some hure with a dancing dog or some black lad rapping about how many hoes and fast cars he has or some other busty muppet singing "If you like it then you should put a ring on it". Its depressing! Its like the entire music industry has been replaced with a bunch of retards.

Where are all the really class metal bands now and how do I find them? Or is it all just tribute bands these days and second rate metal bands?
As much as I enjoy the below list of bands, I really have a craving for new material. Material thats as high a standard as some of the legends of the trade.

What I'm into:
Thin Lizzy, Tool, System of a Down, RATM, Metallica, Iron Maiden, QOTSA, Deftones, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, And So I Watch You From Afar, Skunk Anansie, Sepultura, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Bush

Grayditch

I'm not an Audioslave fan, but I definitely wouldn't consider them a one hit onder. I'm pretty sure Cochise was a bigger song than Like A Stone. Then there was Show Me How To Live, Gasoline, etc.


Anyway, give the band Karnivool a go, sure.

Justin1982

Cochise was fairly second rate compared to Like a Stone which had a fairly genius guitar solo. As in I could rhyme off a load of bands that make songs like Cochise but very few have the talent to make a guitar solo as powerful as Like a Stone.

Is there one song from Karnivool which is going to turn me on?
I listened to the song Deadman just now (recommended by Google) and it seemed like a poor mans Tool.

I should probably warn that I'm pretty critical........I'm expecting bands that can deliver albums of as high a standard as SOAD or Thin Lizzy did.

A lot of people have recommended bands to me that last few years and none of them have lived up to expectations.

Passenger

Metal has never been in a healthier state IMO and the amount of variety in Metal has never been as diverse. The fact of the matter is that you cannot expect mainstream media outlets to provide you with the music you want to hear, you have to go and look for it.

If you're expecting Kerrang!, MTV, et al to tell you what to listen to then you're doing it wrong. YouTube is one of the greatest resources available to music fans nowadays and you really have no excuse not to be finding new and interesting bands to sate your appetite.

If you find a band that you like then you can look them up of on Last.fm, etc. and it will suggest other bands that are similar to said band.

You seem to have quite an inclination toward mainstream Rock & Metal so I would assume that Radio, TV and Print Publications dictate your taste but as I said you need to look for bands that appeal to you on their own merits and not what some Journalist/DJ tells you to listen to. There is so much good music out there, you just have to look in the right places.

666irishguy

As far as I am concerned Metal as I know it/knew it is on it's knees as is most heavy guitar driven music. You haven't missed much. The stuff that you listed is being pushed to the side more and more by an endless sea of ever heavier obscure genres or Pop Metal bands that are pretty much offering the same thing. Chugging guitars tuned so low they might as well play 6 string basses, double bass drumming that isn't even imparting any great rhythm and ****e screaming vocals. I loved the huge Metal bands of the past and can't get into or take stuff like Black, Death Metal or any other modern Metal genre like them seriously or stand their IMO poor songwriting ability and playing. I honestly think people are buying a lot of modern stuff and hyping it up because they want to believe these bands are as good as what went before them. I haven't heard anything that could rival the classic 80's Metal bands in years. Like you, people have given me and a few others, recommendations of a lot of new bands they love and none of them are anything special. The only newish band I occasionally listen to a few tracks from is Mastadon. After that it's mainly just the stuff from the 70's and 80's i'm listening to.

Justin1982

I dont know......I mean like there is obviously a lot of metal bands out there but I'm questioning whether there is bands of the highest caliber coming through.
Fair enough bands like RATM, Metallica and SOAD became mainstream but only because they really were that good.
System of a Down in particular are really way off what would be considered mainstream but they became poppy almost because they were so amazing in their first two albums.

I find that these days I have to listen to a lot of not so good metal to find even just one song. Ten years ago, I could turn on Kerrang and there would be a lot of amazing new metal being played. Now I turn it on and I dont see that really top notch metal coming through.

And I dont really have a genre of music that I like......I like a lot of material outside of metal from Damien Dempsey to Pink and can even appreciate some pop songs.
All I ask is that its trully good music. I dont care how many people like it or not.

I assure you I really really really would love to be proved wrong and find that there is some metalheads hiding out in some basement somewhere playing the most amazing mind blowing metal that I havent heard yet. I'm just a bit worried that there isnt the talent out there now that there used to be.

ASIWYFA have given me hope but I need my next metal fix now motherjumpers!

seachto7

Justin1982 wrote: »

I find that these days I have to listen to a lot of not so good metal to find even just one song. Ten years ago, I could turn on Kerrang and there would be a lot of amazing new metal being played. Now I turn it on and I dont see that really top notch metal coming through.

I think this is the problem with music in general. The fact there are so many more bands around now means you have to sift through more stuff than you would have ten years ago. The fact bands can release stuff themselves without a label also means that the quality control has kind of gone out the window. Quality control that may have been there when record labels were going strong. On the other hand, record labels were pushing certain bands before, where other good bands wouldn't have gotten the chance, as they weren't "signed". But yeah, one has to sift through the crap to find the good stuff a lot more these days. But being able to do it online before you buy is a good thing.

Links234

Justin1982 wrote: »

ASIWYFA have given me hope but I need my next metal fix now motherjumpers!

Looked them up on Youtube there and I remembered that I saw them live before! they were supporting a Japanese band called Lite:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAxXO04buA4

so that might be up your alley

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc1yD9H7Rb8

there's probably loads more stuff out there like that

Patrick 1

If you liked tool give A Perfect Circle a go, and Tool are supposed to be working on a new album but when that arrives is a mystery.
+1 for youtube, use it to listen to stuff you like and it tends to give good recommendations. Give Rise Against a go also, they might fit in well with the above bands.

nyarlothothep

Multitudes of great but obscure bands scrambling for crumbs and never really getting a chance to develop their talent because music should be free you know, while record companies are still going strong releasing generic mind dumbing music. Does anyone else see a problem here?

buck65

nyarlothothep wrote: »

Multitudes of great but obscure bands scrambling for crumbs and never really getting a chance to develop their talent because music should be free you know, while record companies are still going strong releasing generic mind dumbing music. Does anyone else see a problem here?

Well said, plenty of good music out there. Yes you do have to scratch the surface and follow blogs, such as Invisible oranges or multimedia outlets such as Pitchfork and The Needle Drops for reviews.

Actually check out Pitchforks top 50 metal albums for the past few years and there is loads of good stuff around.

My own tastes have become more extreme over the years as I find the likes of another Megadeth or Metallica album just embarassing.

There are some amazing Irish bands releasing great stuff at the moment - Altar of plagues and Mourning Beloveth are worth checking out. Also some lighter stuff like Washington based Mount Eerie's "Wind's Poem" is great.

A previous poster posted a very lazy generalisation about black and death metal. Listen to Krallice and tell me these guys aren't master musicians.

nyarlothothep

buck65 wrote: »

Well said, plenty of good music out there. Yes you do have to scratch the surface and follow blogs, such as Invisible oranges or multimedia outlets such as Pitchfork and The Needle Drops for reviews.

Actually check out Pitchforks top 50 metal albums for the past few years and there is loads of good stuff around.

My own tastes have become more extreme over the years as I find the likes of another Megadeth or Metallica album just embarassing.

There are some amazing Irish bands releasing great stuff at the moment - Altar of plagues and Mourning Beloveth are worth checking out. Also some lighter stuff like Washington based Mount Eerie's "Wind's Poem" is great.

A previous poster posted a very lazy generalisation about black and death metal. Listen to Krallice and tell me these guys aren't master musicians.

That's the problem though, it should be in the mainstream, artists should get paid for their work, that encourages to produce more of it and to a higher standard, if someone thinks, hey an increasingly number of people like my music, it would probably encourage to them to be more inspired. Yeah you can argue two ways about, success breeds stagnation but I think there is a slope whereby it rises in tandem with creative achievements. What's embarassing about Metallica or Megadeth, if you like it who cares what other people think. That's another problem, scenesterism. There's not as much cross pollination of inspiration and ideas if bands are atomised from each other because they're not getting out there into popular discourse. Music has a communal dimension to it, it's impossible to ignore and bands competing for scraps with free downloads or really cheap albums released off their own bat (yeah, I know they got only a tiny percentage of album sales with labels but at least they had the promotional backing to sell more), playing in pubs for eternity or small festivals, it's not good, it's killing music, less people know about it so that means less people to take up the mantle in the future and increasingly insular genres which become more and more inacessible to anyone except the most hardcore. Wouldnt it be better if the mainstream was more plural and less narrowminded, wouldn't that be a better culture to live in than the pitiful excuse for a one we have now? Hell, I remember it used to be better even 13 years ago. At the Drive In on Jools Holland or being featured in the ticket. Now, well whatever it is now, the media/music industry seems to be dominated by a few token bands ie indie music which I dont even classify as "rock" and pop stars that are being critically lauded despite not being critically laudable.

Metal has always been an underdog genre in a way though, ever since Punk the British and Irish media have pretty much ridiculed metal or dismissed it, most people dont like it either because it's too intense. It's music for people who love music and want some agression/energy or whatever, it's not for people who say they like music but really are saying that they just like background noise while they chat to their friends. But it's really been sidelined along with everything else, I don't really see the internet renaissance helping music at all. A band still needs the promotional might of a record company to reach a significant audience, the record companies still have the power but somehow it's become ultra corporatised. Now even if it's metal it has to be sanitised safe metal or it has to fit rigidly into a genre, or else it wont reach that target market. Blame it on the corporate managerial/profit driven culture which I so fundamentally disagree with because look what it does to art, besides everything else, or the hipsters that Zappa was talking about (he basically said that record label bosses originally were more open minded compared to the hippies they hired as A&R later on because they didn't have a clue about music and so were less prejudiced in their tastes), but where is our great generational defining scene, where are the great, momentous bands that produce awesome timeless music that transcends borders and preferences? That era is dead because the conditions have changed and I think it's a loss because those bands were able to produce music as good as that as they were on this rising slope, they knew about each other, they competed with each other to write better and better material and psychologically they were thinking, hey we're pretty good because we're getting kudos, let's make the next album even better.

buck65

nyarlothothep wrote: »

but where is our great generational defining scene, where are the great, momentous bands that produce awesome timeless music that transcends borders and preferences? That era is dead
psychologically they were thinking, hey we're pretty good because we're getting kudos, let's make the next album even better.

Don't agree with that at all, timeless classics take years to become classics and some on release are often not considered great.

time makes things great and timeless. Ask this same question in 10 years and there will be a list of music being made today that will make the grade.

Do you really mean to tell me that there hasn't been great music made since the golden years of metal 1985 - 1991 (ish)?

ush

buck65 wrote: »

Do you really mean to tell me that there hasn't been great music made since the golden years of metal 1985 - 1991 (ish)?

85-91? Golden years?

Surely they were the 75-81

nyarlothothep

buck65 wrote: »

Don't agree with that at all, timeless classics take years to become classics and some on release are often not considered great.

time makes things great and timeless. Ask this same question in 10 years and there will be a list of music being made today that will make the grade.

Do you really mean to tell me that there hasn't been great music made since the golden years of metal 1985 - 1991 (ish)?

No, not at all, but it's harder to find and not as frequent. I wouldn't even say 85-91. More like post 2003. Between 99-2003 there was a sharp decline with the dominance of dance music and boybands but after 2003, while there were one or two classics which were recognisable as classics upon first listens eg The Mars Volta's first two albums, there hasn't been as much or anything with major impact. I don't think time completely equates to classicness. Example the first time I heard The Black Album was in 2007. Many would regard it as a classic, with the exception of opinion variances. When I heard it I thought yeah, this album is really good, I don't really care whether they "sold out" or not, for me it made a big impact, I recognised it as a classic and while you might disagree, the fact that it's their best selling album indicates that it must be doing something really well. It's not all amazing but as a whole it stands up. For example when I heard The Unforgiven I thought, that's a classic song. This is my opinion, but I think there is a point in art where everything comes together just right and in a unique way based on a familiar concept, you know the way many classic songs from Beethoven to Greenday use the same chord progression, but it's the new spin on it and the right combination of different elements which make that work transcendentally good. I'm not saying Greenday are transcendental in that sense, but in the sense that the song I'm referring to does have a particular quality to it that makes it sound, for want of a better word, classic. I dont even like Greenday and the song is ok, not really my cup of tea but regardless I will admit that at an instinctual level I like it and recognise it as a good work of art. So yeah retrospect is a good thing, but there are also albums like Led Zeppelin 4 where you just know, this sh1t is really good and it's going to be a classic either way.

I could say there are few amazing bands out there now, Armenian Space Station for one, very obscure etc but that's the problem, there isn't any cultural environment at a wider level that promotes development of talent in the same as say the late 60s. The Beatles were competing against The Stones, you had Jimi Hendrix etc, they were all trying to write the best material possible and the counter culture was in the mainstream which in turn inspired other people to pick up guitars and start their own bands. The sum of these parts was some really good music, born out of this maelstrom of different bands, people listening to the music, the music getting out there on the radio and so on. Music isn't created in a vacuum and I think it's wrong to deny that social/cultural conditions dont inform it! And that's the same for any artform. We live in a material world absorbing information all the time, how can it not influence what we create?

SilverScreen

Justin1982 wrote: »

Yo! So basically I kind of fell off the Metal wagon back in the early 00's somewhat. Got a job, was busy, laziness and so on and so forth. Kinda. Not sure really.

But I basically havent stumbled across any good metal the last few years apart from an amazing band called And So I Watch You From Afar.

It just seems to me that metal is kind of dead as a genre. Is it just me? Am I just out of the loop or what?
I mean like, back in the ninties and early naughties, one could turn on the radio or the TV and you'd come across some new band or song that just blew you away......every other week, even if it was a one hit wonder like Audioslave's "Like a Stone"
Nowadays I hear zilch! Not a feckin thing apart from stumbling upon And So I Watch You From Afar on the show Tommy and Hector had on RTE.
All I see these days is Simon Cowell, some hure with a dancing dog or some black lad rapping about how many hoes and fast cars he has or some other busty muppet singing "If you like it then you should put a ring on it". Its depressing! Its like the entire music industry has been replaced with a bunch of retards.

Where are all the really class metal bands now and how do I find them? Or is it all just tribute bands these days and second rate metal bands?
As much as I enjoy the below list of bands, I really have a craving for new material. Material thats as high a standard as some of the legends of the trade.

What I'm into:
Thin Lizzy, Tool, System of a Down, RATM, Metallica, Iron Maiden, QOTSA, Deftones, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, And So I Watch You From Afar, Skunk Anansie, Sepultura, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Bush

Yep, you're out of the loop. For starters forget about the TV and radio, the internet has rendered them obsolete when it comes to music. Learn how to find music you like using the internet and you will see that all is still good.

I don't listen to as much metal as others here, but some examples of bands that have been pushing the boundaries of metal since the early 00's rather than rehashing the past are Isis, Enslaved, Opeth, Agalloch, Ufomammut, Kylesa, Baroness, Mastodon, Primordial and The Angelic Process.

Links234

big case of rose tinted glasses going on here, I think

when thinking of the stuff from past decades, it's essentially what's left after all the crap was filtered away by time.

it's like when movie fans go on about the good old days when everything in the cinema was awesome, only it wasn't. Remember back in the 90's and we had pure gold like the shawshank redemption? except that it flopped, the reputation it has now as a classic it slowly got over time. you know what was big at the time and made loads of money? that Flintstones movie with John Goodman, I saw that as a kid but who even remembers it now? we forget about all the rubbish back then, but the good stuff grows a bigger and bigger reputation.

I bet in 2030, we'll have people who'll complain how awesome this past decade was, they'll moan that they weren't around for greats like Mastodon and Rammstein and Meshuggah and Devin Townsend and Gojira and all the others, and how terrible it is there's no great music that defines a generation any more, how you have to listen through loads of crap before you get to something good, because all the crap hasn't been left to the wayside and forgetten yet, it's still there in your face.

my solution is, listen to what you like and don't worry about it, time will decide what holds up and what doesn't. most of my favourite music is very, very recent!

Angron

Of the stuff the OP has said they like, I'm only really a fan of RATM, SOAD, and Sepultura. I'd suggest maybe giving Rise Against a listen if you haven't, politically charged much like Rage (and System to a degree). Not a metal band, more punk, but still worth a listen I reckon.

For Sepultura-esque stuff, Max has had a few bands since he left, like Nailbomb, Soulfly, and Cavalera Conspiracy. CC actually has Igor in the band too.

You can also look at websites like last.fm, it usually has reasonable suggestions for bands similar to others that you might like, for instance Sepultura, and Rage (which has a few of the other artists you said you like).

Deschain

Links234 wrote: »

big case of rose tinted glasses going on here, I think

when thinking of the stuff from past decades, it's essentially what's left after all the crap was filtered away by time.

it's like when movie fans go on about the good old days when everything in the cinema was awesome, only it wasn't. Remember back in the 90's and we had pure gold like the shawshank redemption? except that it flopped, the reputation it has now as a classic it slowly got over time. you know what was big at the time and made loads of money? that Flintstones movie with John Goodman, I saw that as a kid but who even remembers it now? we forget about all the rubbish back then, but the good stuff grows a bigger and bigger reputation.

I bet in 2030, we'll have people who'll complain how awesome this past decade was, they'll moan that they weren't around for greats like Mastodon and Rammstein and Meshuggah and Devin Townsend and Gojira and all the others, and how terrible it is there's no great music that defines a generation any more, how you have to listen through loads of crap before you get to something good, because all the crap hasn't been left to the wayside and forgetten yet, it's still there in your face.

my solution is, listen to what you like and don't worry about it, time will decide what holds up and what doesn't. most of my favourite music is very, very recent!

Hit the nail there dude, was going to say the same thing. The thing is its easier to find music you like these days than it ever was, they didn't have the internet back in the day to find new music, it was all word of mouth and what the record shop owner recommended. The Archies 'Sugar Sugar' spent four weeks at number 1 in 1969, there was a lot of crap floating around back then too.

Clandestine

Give these a listen, bit different:

Grayditch

Get Spotify, type in your favourite bands and click the Related Artist tabs. You'll get some good stuff, there.

Forces of Steel

Justin1982 wrote: »

What I'm into:
Tool, System of a Down, RATM, Metallica, QOTSA, Deftones, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, And So I Watch You From Afar, Skunk Anansie, Sepultura, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Bush

I don't mean to be rude, but none of the bands above are really metal (or they used to be).

To answer your question (in short):
Yes, metal is alive and well. Use streaming sites to branch out and find what you like.

PickledLime

Passenger wrote: »

Metal has never been in a healthier state IMO and the amount of variety in Metal has never been as diverse. The fact of the matter is that you cannot expect mainstream media outlets to provide you with the music you want to hear, you have to go and look for it.

If you're expecting Kerrang!, MTV, et al to tell you what to listen to then you're doing it wrong. YouTube is one of the greatest resources available to music fans nowadays and you really have no excuse not to be finding new and interesting bands to sate your appetite.

If you find a band that you like then you can look them up of on Last.fm, etc. and it will suggest other bands that are similar to said band.

You seem to have quite an inclination toward mainstream Rock & Metal so I would assume that Radio, TV and Print Publications dictate your taste but as I said you need to look for bands that appeal to you on their own merits and not what some Journalist/DJ tells you to listen to. There is so much good music out there, you just have to look in the right places.

Couldn't agree with this statement any more if I tried. There's an absolute avalanche of good metal on the go these days. And I've also found that there's a mountain of stuff from the 80s and 90s I never got round to (because just even hearing about music back then was an effort) to explore. Go buy a the next issue of either Zero Tolerance or Terrorizor, that's how I discovered a tonne of stuff about 10 years ago (via reviews, interviews, retrospectives, special features - there was at least one band per issue that I really liked and it gave me a bit of time to track down their stuff and digest it slowly).

Subscribe to DME on Facbook and get along to the tonne of deadly gigs in Dublin.

Forces of Steel wrote: »

I don't mean to be rude, but none of the bands above are really metal (or they used to be).

To answer your question (in short):
Yes, metal is alive and well. Use streaming sites to branch out and find what you like.

Yup, metal has never been fitter. As stated, you err towards mainstream rock/metal (don't get me wrong, I own and love albums by every single band you listed, but that's what they are, and 'mainstream' isn't an insult, it just is what it is - mainstream!), which is in a pretty sorry state right now (from what I can see).

If you like the Deftones, get the last album, it's possibly their best release since White Pony, IMO of course.

And seeing as you like ASIWYFA, try these:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN738_K3fIM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPX9mHd0grM

Happy hunting

PickledLime

buck65 wrote: »

A previous poster posted a very lazy generalisation about black and death metal. Listen to Krallice and tell me these guys aren't master musicians.

Indeed. Obscura are playing within the normally accepted boundaries of death metal (this track is largely instrumental, but they do the raspy/growled vocals) and are absolutely incredible musicians. I played this track for a friend who doesn't like death metal vocals and he was blown away (okay, okay, it's an excuse to spout jollies about my fave band of the last decade again :P)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEsgYzK7q4A

Justin1982

Forces of Steel wrote: »

I don't mean to be rude, but none of the bands above are really metal (or they used to be).

To answer your question (in short):
Yes, metal is alive and well. Use streaming sites to branch out and find what you like.

Are ye having a giraffe? Of course some of those bands are Metal....Some are rock and and some are grunge........Metallica and SOAD are more metal in fairness than anything else.

Anyway thanks for the advise on how to get my metal **** together everyone. I've found one awesome song at least from Pitchfork.

PS. 2003 was the best year for metal as it was the year I discovered Tool's Aenima, SOAD's Toxicity and found out that Metallica actually had songs from early albums that were not a complete pile of festering ****. All I had heard of before that, Metallica wise, was mediocre pop songs like Enter Sandman and Nothing Else Matters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efsUakRY2IQ

Forces of Steel

Justin1982 wrote: »

Are ye having a giraffe? Of course some of those bands are Metal....Some are rock and and some are grunge........Metallica and SOAD are more metal in fairness than anything else.

Aside from their first four or five albums, Metallica no longer plays metal. System of a Down is far from being predominant metal. There may be hints of metal on some of their songs, but they are clearly closer to alternative.

Anyway, I'm not trying to judge you. Just pointing out objectively that those bands aren't metal.