IS METAL DEAD? Part 1

Why? Periphery, Tesseract, Animals as Leaders, etc…all just new evolutions of the general umbrella genre of “Metal”…

No I don’t believe that Metal as a musical genre will die out.

All art forms that humans have created have sustained in one form or another, things like dancing or rhythmic beats have persisted since ancient times and are the very essence of our structured movement. In armies, people prefer to walk in line or in beat with one another and in construction, people tend to strike an object (with a hammer for example) in timed sequence. This is the inherent detail and fascination with symmetry and sound that humans possess.

As far as music is concerned, all “modern” music (ie 17th century onwards) has persisted till today with classical music being an early version of technical arrangement. If jazz music and counterculture music like blues both borne of man’s suffering are the early roots of rock then it is easy to see that the emotion behind rock, metal etc will always be there.

There have been far too many important rock legends that have impacted generations and several important inventions as well (electric synth/organ, amplification, modern electric guitars etc) These will resonate significantly into the next century and with it will come a host of people who will always feel the urge to resist the status quo and play heavier harder music. So it is my belief that Metal, borne of the building block that is rock and roll/jazz/fusion and blues will persist as in is inherent and can be re-discovered several times in our species future.

I don’t think metal is a dying genre. Although every kind of music does reach the brink of extinction, it always surfaces back up by the ones who really love, cherish and believe in it. Metal has always faced difficulties in the so called civilised society. It has been blamed for many reasons only understood by those who don’t in fact understand metal at all. The more you oppress anything the more power it gains and it’s the same with metal. Metal might go totally underground at some point but it’ll never die. It’s too powerful to be given up. Its followers are too dedicated to it. So there’s no chance in hell that it’ll fade away.

 Not at all. A lot of people think just because there are no more “heavy metal bands” out there that metal is dead. Actually if you take a close look metal never dies and never will. Changes in the sub genre always happen. Heavy and thrash metal were quite popular back in the 80s but look at what we have right now, bands like Orphaned land, Myrath, Opeth, and Apeira are taking the lead when it comes to progressive metal and Oriental metal. Let’s also not forget about technical metal and techno metal. The great thing about metal is that it can be mixed with all other types of music and that why I think it will never die. Maybe rock’n roll is dead but metal will never. If history have taught us anything then it would be that for every empire to raise the previous one has got to fall, Oriental + technical metal are raising and therefore; heavy + thrash metal must die. Just like what happened in the early 80s when the leaders of thrash/speed metal “aka the big four” “Megadeth, Metalica, Slayer, and Anthrax” had to raise glam/hair metal had to go down.

Metal is defiantly not a dying genre.
You can say metali is not as commercial as POP or RNB and not as popular as disco back in 70s and 80s and I believe that’s what makes it special. Metal is not only music you listen to but it’s lifestyle. Metal been through rough times especially when the punk era started in the UK and the USA in the late 60S early 70s and again when the disco era started late 70s early 80s, but after all Metal Survived, so I really don’t think Metal is Dying.
And as The Gods of Metal (MANOWAR) said: Losers try to put us down it’s just another day… Time to burn you losers better learn, No one controls our goddamn lives
And,
We are the undefeated we’re not living in the past
We’re here tonight to kick some goddamn ass
Feel the power of the wheel lets drink to riding steel
Livin hard and ridin fastLong Live Heavy Metal \m/

Metal music is such a diverse genre now with all its many subdivision, as a rock purest it’s hard to keep track of them all to be honest. However, if somebody is listening to any genre of music somewhere in the world, would it not be fare to say, ‘the music is still alive’? Whether it be rock, metal, Disco, Traditional, blues. Sounds like metal maybe going through what rock went through in the 90’s with the advent of the tech generation. The death of Guitar based music  is heralded as dead or dying every year and some band comes along with something fresh and kicks the life back into it. Maybe metal needs a band to get back to its roots, strip it down to the heavy riffing musicality that spawned it from bands like Black Sabath. I’d love to hear some band take it back to its roots. Sometimes the future of music is reinventing the past.

Having bought reasonably recent albums by Opeth, Coheed and Cambria and also Thirty Seconds To Mars (I don’t even know if they are metal to be honest!) I’d say it’s still alive and getting through to a younger audience.
I’m also looking forward to getting the new Mars Volta album and also the forthcoming Rush one. It will probably be crap but I’ll buy it as I just can’t help it when it comes to that band!
But while metal (and prog) may still be alive, I find I’ve moved on personally.
I still buy the odd album, when I read a good review – or even a bad one sometimes! But I must admit I get diminishing returns.