I think my awnser to this question will piss most of you off, but it is definitley not without merit. Bands today do not seem to know or care about the history of metal, so they don't know where it's heading. A lot of bands today are using older styles or regurgitating styles and ideas from other bands, saying that it's more pure than newer metal bands. But this is ludicris. I think that you should take the latest band that tried something new and build from there. If you aren't improving the genre you're overcrowding it with waste. Bands like Superjoint ritual take alot from bands like venom and other older hardcore bands. But if you look at where metal was last scene evolving you'll realize that this is not the route. Burzum had it right by integrating synth music and ambience into metal. It's clear if you know the history of metal that ambience is where it is heading. Ambience being music where one or more layers of the song remain unchanged, or change very little. Take some of Ildjarn's stuff, or Morbid Angel's stuff. But Burzum is key here. If you want to know more about this history and ideology behind the masters of metal go to www.anus.com/metal/history it's really a great great site. So all in all I think that metal is regressing. Bands like Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth are just making black metal easier for general audiences to listen to, for the radio to play. It's completely going against the ideology behind the whole freaking genre.

eeeeh black metal sucks anyways, so I couldn't care less.

you should be the 'newskool metal priest' and go on tv!

anyways, www.anus.com doesn't sound like the kind of website I'de like to visit, so I'de rather stay ignorant. thank you.

yea good point im with Def

But the difference with today's "metal" is that the fanbase in most cases is just plain stupid and give metalheads a bad name.But thats only from my experience.Also, i dont plan on living long enough to make Metal boring.There is still much to see and hear.

bloodredthrone, good points. I know what your saying but like them, i dont like black metal that much...

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There's progress other than Burzum. I'll set aside my personal distaste for the music and the man himself and say this: that man was not going further in the evolution of metal. He was moving away from it. And synths in metal are as new as Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, or even older.

True, a lot of bands have throwback sounds these days due to nostalgia for what they grew up on, but a lot of bands don't, or do and use it in interesting ways. You can't just cut with the past except artificially. If you take a good look at the metal scene, you'll notice it's still progressing in bits, even without sounding like Burzum.

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your link is borken, i think htis might be what you were looking for
http://www.anus.com/metal/about/history.html
and dont worry def/etc. there isn't anything bad on there, apart from the fact that it seems a bit black metal orientated.

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NO.

your just listening to the wrong bands...

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haha yeah, there will always be bands that push the envolope a bit more and/or bring something slightly new to the table:

Martyr
Lukathea Aflame
Akercocke

if you don't like where a certain genre is heading, just find a new one...or if you don't like where metal in general is heading, well...make your own band i guess.

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That's what it says on the Cephalic Carnage site, that they made a band to 'correct the past mistakes in music.' Dillinger Escape Plan's says the same thing. I assume they're just being arrogant, but it might be that as well. If I ever make a band with a website, I'll definitely be saying the same. Not because it's true, but just because it's hilarious.

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Your mom's regressing.

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dude, i dunno what kind of bands you're listening to...but i'll be guessing they're shite since you doubt the state of "metal" these days.

Mostly, I do think it is. There are a few bands moving boldly forward, but not enough for me to really say that metal's best years are ahead of it.

Excuse me for disagreeing with you here, but refusing to play guitar anymore because it is a "nigger instrument" is hardly the future of metal, nor should it be. As had already been stated, synth music integrated into metal is hardly original. I don't get into ambience that much, although I will on occasion. The future of metal is whatever evolves out of death metal, if you ask me.

Black metal seems to be splintering off into completely non-metal categories, and those black metal bands that still play metal are largely primitive in their abilities and it shows in their music. Power metal doesn't seem like it will last forever, although I like it. I think elements of power metal and progressive metal will be incorporated into death metal, and hybrid forms of metal are what I think we will see more of in the near future (maybe 5-10 years).

Death metal is clearly the strongest form of metal right now, the form with the most bands, and probably the most popular form among underground fans. It is only logical to think that because it's the strongest form of metal, it will be the form that the next new wave of metal evolves out of. Obviously during the 80's, thrash was by far the strongest form of metal, and naturally, several other forms of metal evolved from it, most obviously death metal. Death metal is the closest form of metal to thrash, and retains the strongest elements of thrash, and the next form of metal will evolve out of it, not black metal.

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Did you notice how the history lesson on that site made blues the extension of Celtic and German folk music, and therefore not black, or nigger, music at all except by a factitious connection made by those damn advertising executives, and made Hitler out as not that bad a guy, as he was simply propagandized as such by post-war American spin-doctors? It sounds to me like it's history as written for Varg Vikernes, so it's unsurprising that he's at the vanguard when we reach the most modern times.

What's problematic about this is that it's not even inherently logical, give the rest of their history, which is, moreover, flawed. Every other time they talk of a genre forming, it's a hybridization of various existing genres, not a branching off into aleatoric nonsense. It's always someone taking what exists and adding to it; not eschewing a large chunk of his musical heritage in favor of a new direction. While I'm not sure I agree with Chris in saying that death metal is the forward looking genre, the way they've structured the argument it certainly comes out as being more so than black metal.

Anyway, it's important to remember than metal hasn't ever been moving in just one direction, and I doubt it is now, either.

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Is metal regressing? No. One only has to look to bands such as Cryptopsy, Cephalic Carnage, Akercocke, DEP, Converge and Nile to realise that the future of heavy music is safe and sound. Even bands that have been around for years are evolving, for instance Morbid Angel are almost unrecognisable when comparing Altars Of Madness with Heretic.

No, metal is in very capable hands at the moment and I for one am excited with how extreme music is unfurling in the new milennium.

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lmao

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If a band doesn't play Black Metal they aren't a Black Metal band anymore, they were (ideology is another thing), and generally speaking, if a band want to play ambient they just start another band. But happens rarely, Black Metal is still the best way to express your personal emotions, if those are somewhat "black" and for example ambient is much more difficult to make.



There are many bands which have avarage/good musical skills on Black Metal, and usually those who have bad skills are on demo level (Black Metal bands usually begin mostly because of ideological purposes, rarely just for musical motives. And therefore musical abilities might sometimes be primitive).

Actually, it is a very good website with some excellent in-depth analysis of lots of metal albums.

Look at the big picture here.

When I was growing up, I wanted to see and hear my favourite bands playing in shows, videos, cd's, etc. with current interviews and the such. I wasn't able to be in a band growing up so I idolized these bands instead. My musical style has been nourished by my favourite bands. If they stopped making this type of music (in order to not copy it or steal from it) then how would younger kids be able to learn from it?

If musical styles of today's bands were not allowed to somewhat 'borrow' from older bands, then kids would be missing out on all the good stuff that I grew up with. You need bands that take from the past and build it into the future. Fans need to 'grow' with bands and see their musical progression over the years.

Honestly, 80's hair bands did not do it for me (the ones with incoherent shredding). Grunge came along and killed it. Now nu-metal. The trend is that we had a bunch of shredding leads in the 80's to music that doesn't even have leads. Kids grow up listening to music with no leads and they think this is the norm.

I say that I can't listen to metal without leads. This is why we need to keep the past in our music of the present and future. Creativity and experimental stuff is ok for me. If it sounds good, do it, doesn't mean I'll like it though.

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