Metal is getting worse and worse

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nightlight

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Here are three songs by major bands that I have heard recently. Some might be older than the others:







I listened diligently through the entire songs, albums sometimes, and I was seriously depressed. Remember, these are the biggest songs on these albums, with well-produced videos in some cases.

What gives? I've heard some people say that everything that could possibly be written has been written by now, and all the bands have run out of ideas. That might explain it.
 
The youngest band in that list is 24 years old. Metal is just like any other music genre in that it is determined by trends dictated by the youth. Death metal and Grindcore are where the greatest push has been with the youth. I don't expect bands like Exodus or Anthrax to be the innovators, given their heyday was 40 years ago.
 
Check out Watson’s new death metal thread. Lots of good stuff in there. Idk why you’re expecting bands who were popular 40 years ago to be pushing the genre forward.

Also, Obscura’s bassist is dope but they also had a falling out with a member, I believe.
 
You posted three videos by three aging artists. They aren't breaking any new ground. There are plenty of new band doing that.
 
You generally can't look to major, established bands for innovation. Besides, metal is a form now and not many fans are gonna like people pushing the boundaries of a tradition that have been pretty firmly established.
 
I find it hard to listen to younger metal bands. Maybe it’s just that metal has always been pushed by people of the same general young age and I’ve aged out from being younger and looking up at those guys, to being older than them and now seeing newer metal bands as a bunch of children wearing their dads’ jackets playing pretend and trying to look tough. It’s just lame.

Then again there’s also a trend I’ve noticed, where metal has tended to fall away from right hand-centric strength and ferocity, and more into left hand-centric grace and dexterity, and that sound, while technically neat I guess, just isn’t as moving to me.
 
I find it hard to listen to younger metal bands. Maybe it’s just that metal has always been pushed by people of the same general young age and I’ve aged out from being younger and looking up at those guys, to being older than them and now seeing newer metal bands as a bunch of children wearing their dads’ jackets playing pretend and trying to look tough. It’s just lame.

Then again there’s also a trend I’ve noticed, where metal has tended to fall away from right hand-centric strength and ferocity, and more into left hand-centric grace and dexterity, and that sound, while technically neat I guess, just isn’t as moving to me.
Yeah, that's kinda my point. The right hand dominant thrash sound was 40 years ago now. It gave way to the groove and nu-metal of the '90s-'00s. Then came the metalcore and deathcore of the late '00s to the '10s. After that was the djent sound and beat down bands. Now it seems to be more death metal and old school grind.

It always evolves with the youth. They support the scene. If you don't go to local shows at a the tiny clubs on a weekly basis, you're out of the loop. By the time that shit hits your YouTube feed, they've been rocking it for years. Think about how many people didn't hear about Sleep Token until they sold out an arena tour. They didn't get popular over night.
 
I find it hard to listen to younger metal bands. Maybe it’s just that metal has always been pushed by people of the same general young age and I’ve aged out from being younger and looking up at those guys, to being older than them and now seeing newer metal bands as a bunch of children wearing their dads’ jackets playing pretend and trying to look tough. It’s just lame.

Then again there’s also a trend I’ve noticed, where metal has tended to fall away from right hand-centric strength and ferocity, and more into left hand-centric grace and dexterity, and that sound, while technically neat I guess, just isn’t as moving to me.
I totally relate to your first point. As to your second point, I think most bands ran out of mostly open string and simplistic chug patterns to recycle.
 
I totally relate to your first point. As to your second point, I think most bands ran out of mostly open string and simplistic chug patterns to recycle.

lol that's a fair point. There's only so many variations of 0-0-0-0-0-0-0 you can do before getting sick of it.
 
In terms of the older guys: At The Gates, Kreator, Testament and Coroner have been putting out solid product recently in my opinion.
The latest Coroner is a killer album and a mighty return after a 23 year hiatus.
The new COC is also a really strong album. Nothing groundbreaking but good solid tunes and a killer drummer.
 
Of the three clips you posted I hadn’t heard any of them before. I only listened to the first 90 seconds of each and….
I thought the Anthrax song was the best. Sounds like Anthrax. Solid song.
The Exodus song was pretty killer until the singer came in. Something about the vocals just seemed off. Kinda like some random dude trying to use lyrics like Slayer but just talking.
I did not like the Obscura song at all.
 
metal isn't dead, but it's been on cliche life support for over 2 decades; and it smells bad too.

modern formula. quantize, quantize, quantize then just tune down to subsonic levels, overload with gain, lose any note separation and clarity, add cookie monster vocals.


metal jumped the shark in the '00s


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