It's arrived! Finally, after years of waiting and hating, awesome metal is back! I've ached for badass riffs and soaring solos that were written in my lifetime. I mean, outside of Pantera, Mastodon, and Slayer, We've had to suffer through hardcore-esque metal riffs and robotic leads through the 90's and into the new millennium. There was what you could call a resurgence of "metal" music in the mid 00's. However, the releases scored quite low on my badassery scale. Bands like Lamb of God, Avenged Sevenfold, God Forbid, and *shiver* As I Lay Dying were flying the flag for metal. I was torn on how I felt about it. On one hand, heavy music is receiving attention; on the other hand, this was mediocre at best.
I have a very particular view on metal and what qualifies as such. Most people would think chuggy riffs, screaming vocals, and double bass stomping qualify a band as metal. Though a great deal of metal bands do contain said qualities, these are as superficial and secondary to the genre as spiked hair is to punk. There was something missing in these bands, something missing in a great deal of music, but the word escapes me. Ah, yes...BALLS!
nonsense marketed and accepted as metal over the past decade is the whiniest and testosterone free music to be categorized as metal since Poison. Sure, they're pissed...I guess, but I don't feel it. I mean, when you listen to a Slayer album, you feel their hate, their anger, their disgust. When I listen to Lamb of God I hear Randy on the verge of tears. A lot of the metal became so rigid too, man, so mechanical and squeaky clean. The leads were so clean cut they could have applied for a desk job, and the riffs were as dirty as an anal retentive broad's apartment. It just disgusted me. What made it worse was that I couldn't simply hate it, or write it off because the musicians were talented and it was "aggressive" music to at least some extent. However, what the modern conception of "metal" fails to even touch the greats. Now I'm not going to go on how metal used to be great and now it's bad, because I don't think era or time has anything to do with it. The blame should be pointed to the media and promoters for dishing out such shitty bands to the masses. Ozzfest could have had Cannibal Corpse, Municipal Waste, Gama Bomb, and Slayer on their tours but they didn't. They got As I Lay Dying and Killswitch Engage instead. They fed us pussy-emo-hardcore metal that only qualified as such because they used high distortion amps and double bass. Anyways, I don't have do dwell on the past anymore because a new age is upon us, and new talent is coming to the forefront once again. This year has shown great releases from older bands like Slayer, Cannibal Corpse, and Megadeth (best album since Rust in Peace), newer bands such as Mastodon and High on Fire, and brand spanken' new bands like Municipal Waste, Toxic Holocaust, and Gama Bomb. It is the year of metal.
What impresses me most are the new up and coming metal bands from around the world playing thrash with sheer intensity and talent, a looseness unseen since Pantera, and FINALLY a sense of humor. These songs are about zombies, beer, shredding, partying, fighting, ninja's, you name it. They get it. They understand what metal is about and some things metal had lost a long time ago: fun and zombies. Metal has been so serious since the Grunge days, when you couldn't play unless you had a fucked up childhood or were some melodramatic dickhead with nothing better to say that "fuck you" or "feel bad for me" in the weakest tone, whimpering and screaming over two Mesa Boogie half stacks. How did this become the standard? Now we have guys who may have problems, but would rather sing about stuff like monsters, or tell elaborate stories, adding some level of creativity and intelligence back into the music. Most people listen to metal to become empowered, to make themselves feel better, not to hear about this jerkoff's problems.
It's not only the subject matter either; the musicianship just keeps getting better and looser as the records go on. The musicians are stretching themselves, their voices, and their intensity. Singers are actually singing again, and wailing on plains not heard since Halford. Even Mastodon are starting to articulate their lyrics with some sort of a melody. Formerly, bands would do this really neat thing where they would scream and sing. When the music strums into that touching part of the song where the guitars harmonize and the guy with his spikey hair holding the microphone takes a break and sooths you with his sultry lyrics about pain and love. After this the blast beats would kick in and the audience gets blown away. I see it as masturbation, and a sad excuse for singing. What is thought of as singing is just whining. Every line is ended with an AYA! noise, such as "and my heart resides with youAYA!" Like a half orgasm, but while choking back tears. A sadgasm, if you will. It's disgusting.
Anyways, metal is back in full fury, even my friends are putting out great music, so its even spreading back to the suburbs. Musicians and fans alike are getting the hint that there is this potential that has been suppressed all these years. Metal can be relevant and reinvent itself without having to ball one's eyes out onstage. Shine on my metal compatriots, and until next time, keep shredding.
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