The Dismal Current State of Mainstream Heavy Metal

Is there anyone we can rely on to put out a good mainstream heavy metal album anymore? I’m serious. Mainstream heavy metal is in some major trouble and in desperate need of new blood. Let’s take a quick look at some of the genre’s most popular bands, and see what the hell is going on with them.

 

Metallica: The most popular metal band to have ever existed just put out a 3D movie no one asked for. Metalheads can’t even rely on Metallica to put out a good record anymore. Just when the band had finally slightly redeemed itself with Death Magnetic, they put out Lulu. Now all hopes and expectations are out the window.

Megadeth: Really guys? Super Collider? That record speaks for itself. It’s a piece of trash. I want United Abominations and Endgame Megadeth back.

Slayer: Fans probably would have accepted the band with Gary Holt just permanently replacing Hanneman, but getting rid of Dave Lombardo was too much of a slap in the face for Slayer fans. Lombardo is essential to the band, and without him and Hanneman, what hope does Slayer have of putting out a decent record?

Black Sabbath: Without Bill Ward the band just feels incomplete. The newest record is still good, but something is missing, and I think many other metalheads will agree with me on that point.

Sepultura: REUNITE WITH THE CAVALERA BROTHERS ALREADY! This is getting ridiculous. 

Slipknot: The world could really use Slipknot, but Corey Taylor is holding his crew back from putting out the comeback record that fans are all dying to listen to. The motivation for the record is there for everyone but him, and it’s driving listeners insane. System of a Down is experiencing something very similar with Serj Tankian’s lack of desire to fully recommit to the band, despite the excitement of the rest of his bandmates. 

And those are just examples of what’s wrong with some of the active bands. Iron Maiden and Judas Priest are taking a really long time to release new stuff. 

 

Meanwhile, you have heavy metal icons such as Phil Anselmo, Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie trying to get back in the game, but still coming short of reclaiming past glory.

Taking a look at newer popular heavy metal groups, Avenged Sevenfold basically just released a covers album, Device sounds exactly like Disturbed, Hellyeah has never released an original record, and really Stone Sour? That’s your attempt at rejuvenating heavy metal? Your last double album was good, but not nearly as exciting as promised. 

Oh, and I haven’t forgotten Five Finger Death Punch, who hasn’t released a memorable record since the debut, yet is still managing to get major headlining gigs. Then there’s Trivium, who wrote a tribute record to Metallica a while back and now seems to be doing so for Disturbed, further tarnishing their good reputation.

At least mainstream heavy metal has Anthrax, though, right? The band's last album was pretty great. Hopefully Rob Caggiano wasn’t the only one keeping them in check. 

Look, I’m not trying to just shamelessly bash popular heavy metal groups. What I’m trying to point out is that a lot of metal’s most beloved bands are lowering their standards and not thinking out their records. It’s easy to have fun and put out a metal album. It’s hard to put out a record that is of high quality, and it’s even harder to put out one that sounds original. 

I think with fame a lot of bands have become lazier and/or less inspired. Megadeth’s new album is a good example of both of those characteristics. Super Collider sounds like an album made by a band going through the motions, and that’s just not alright. I have a lot of respect for bands such as Rage Against the Machine and Tool, who are bands that collectively took a step back when they didn’t feel motivated. Taking a break to explore other musical outlets can sometimes be exactly what a band needs in order to sound fresh again. 

Deftones is a great example of a band that is just always out to impress their fans, no matter how famous they get. They threw out an entire album because they felt they had a bigger statement to make. They followed their artistic vision and look at how that turned out. Diamond Eyes was incredible, and worthy of the praise it received. 

Some of these famous bands, such as Avenged Sevenfold and Trivium, just have no idea where to go. They lack direction, and a directionless band can never and will never be able to put out a memorable record. These groups either need some fresh blood, a producer to give them direction (who isn’t David Draiman) or maybe just a break.

It’s also not alright to keep rehashing the same album. The only metal band who can do that and still be accepted by both critics and their fans is Mötorhead, but they've earned that right.

I think what heavy metal really needs is some new blood. There are a lot of exciting new things happening in the heavy metal underground, but nothing is happening in the heavy metal mainstream. There hasn’t been a new hugely successful metal band since Avenged Sevenfold. To clarify, I’m not talking about the Lamb of God and Machine Head level of success. I’m not even talking about super cool, "scene" Asking Alexandria success. I’m talking about rock star success. The kind of success that allows people to include “Synyster Gates” and “Slash” in the same sentence. 

I think the world needs a new figurative Slipknot. When Slipknot came onto the scene, people freaked out. The group had nine members, chaotic live shows unlike anything else and had music that balanced aggression with exciting creativity. In other words, people need mainstream metal that sounds fresh and hasn’t been done before. 

Kudos to Ghost for trying, but the over-the-top-Satanic band just doesn’t have the exciting music to coincide with the cool gimmick. They will never be as big as they could be because of that, even if it is nice to hear Blue Oyster Cult-influenced metal suddenly get a little bit more popular again. 

Heavy metal needs a band that can get the masses freaking out again. A new boundary needs to be broken. A new anger needs to be unleashed. A new group needs to step up, and just take the world by storm. 

The question now is, how much longer will it take for this new band to appear? With the music industry constantly evolving and heavy metal becoming more and more multi-dimensional, one can only hope that the next big thing in heavy metal is only a couple of years away. Until then, the wait might be difficult with releases like this:

Speed Metal and Thrash Metal

Over the past couple of weeks, “Into the Pit: A Metal Blog” has covered the earliest subgenres of heavy metal music. These subgenres were the early beginnings of this heavier style of rock music, and they helped lay the foundation for what was to come in the 1980s.

During the 1980s, heavy metal music started to get faster and more aggressive than ever. New metal bands of the time were all trying to be more vicious than the next. That resulted in the rise of speed metal and thrash metal.

We have already briefly mentioned speed metal in the past few weeks when discussing bands such as Motörhead, Accept and Venom. Speed metal was developed during the 1970s, and it eventually evolved into thrash metal music.

There is some debate amongst heavy metal listeners as to whether speed metal is a legitimate subgenre. The people who argue that it is tend to say that speed metal is generally cleaner and more intricate than thrash metal music, which relies more heavily on long, wrenching rhythmic breaks. Personally, I do consider speed metal to be a legitimate subgenre of heavy metal music, though I believe it soon became indistinguishable from thrash.

Thrash metal is generally characterized by its fast tempos, double bass drumming, low-register vocals, intricate guitar riffs, and high register guitar solos. Thrash metal also usually consists of melodic singing or shouting vocals. The genre is heavily influenced by the NWOBHM and speed metal bands of the 1970s.

There were many “proto-thrash” songs of the 1970s, such as Diamond Head’s “Am I Evil?,” Judas Priest’s “Rapid Fire,” and even Queen’s “Stone Cold Crazy,” but the first real thrash metal bands were formed in the early 1980s. The most notable thrash metal bands in the US were known as “The Big Four” bands of thrash metal, and they consisted of Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax. These bands were the initial pioneers of thrash, and they are four of the most popular and prominent metal bands of all time.

Metallica was the first of the four bands to be formed, and are without a doubt the most popular metal band in the world today. Their first album, Kill ‘Em All, was released in 1983 and was one of the first real thrash metal albums.



One of Metallica’s most legendary albums was its third release, Master of Puppets, which has been hailed by some critics as the best metal album of all time.



The band really became a worldwide phenomenon, though, when they released their fifth album, titled The Black Album (also known as their self-titled release). It has been certified 15 times platinum in the US and is one of the most successful rock albums of all time. Since the album’s release, Metallica’s popularity has just kept growing, and today they are considered to be the most commercially successful metal band of all time.



It’s easy to spend three blog posts just talking about the significance of Metallica, but there are many other important thrash metal bands that deserve to be addressed here.

Megadeth, the second out of the “Big Four,” was formed by ex-Metallica guitarist, Dave Mustaine. Megadeth is the second most successful band of "The Big Four,” releasing landmark metal albums such as Peace Sells…But Who's Buying?, Rust in Peace, and Countdown to Extinction.



The last two bands of “The Big Four” are Slayer and Anthrax.

Slayer is the most inaccessible out of the four bands because of their controversial lyrical topics, intense speed and their vocalist’s harsh shouting vocals. Slayer has strongly influenced the development of death metal, and other underground metal subgenres. The band is most well known for their highly successful album, Reign in Blood; however, they have several other very highly acclaimed albums, such as Hell Awaits, South of Heaven, and Seasons in the Abyss.



Anthrax is the least successful of “The Big Four” but they still have a solid and devoted fanbase. They are the most musically consistent out of the four bands, and are known for their more melodic vocals. Anthrax’s most famous albums are Spreading the Disease, Among the Living and Sound of White Noise.



In the US during the 1980s, the San Francisco Bay Area was a very popular region for up and coming thrash metal bands. Several very popular thrash metal bands from this area include Testament, Exodus, Vio-lence, Forbidden and Death Angel. This blog is actually named after Testament’s song “Into the Pit.” Similarly, on the east coast there was also a strong thrash metal scene that led to the formation of Overkill, Whiplash, and Storm Troopers of Death.



Thrash metal also became popular worldwide. Germany was notable for their Teutonic thrash metal scene that sprouted many very popular thrash metal bands. The “three kings” of Teutonic thrash metal are Kreator, Sodom, and Destruction, as they were the most well known bands to come out of this scene. These bands heavily influenced the pioneering of death metal that was to come later in the decade.



One final thrash metal band that is extremely necessary to mention is Sepultura, who is from the Brazilian thrash metal scene. Led by the Cavalera brothers, Sepultura became one of the most popular thrash metal bands around the world for their albums, Beneath the Remains, Arise, Chaos A.D. and Roots.

Similarly to Slayer and the “three kings” of Teutonic thrash, Sepultura heavily influenced the development of death metal. The Cavalera brothers eventually left Sepultura during the 1990s, and now the band is led by long time guitarist Andreas Kisser, and longtime bassist Paolo Jr.



In the mid-1990s, grunge started to take over, and thrash metal became an exhausted genre of music. Many famous thrash metal bands changed their sound or experienced radical line-up changes. In particular, Metallica has been accused of having sold out around this time, as their style transformed into commercial hard rock.

Since then, thrash metal has seen a slight resurgence in popularity, which was fueled by newly-created thrash metal acts such as Municipal Waste, Warbringer, Lazarus A.D, Evile, and Skeletonwitch. Many famous thrash metal bands have also seen line-up reunions, and have reverted to their old musical habits of the 1980s. Recently, “The Big Four” played together for the first time ever, and have since done several subsequent shows together.

Thrash metal has been revived for now, and will hopefully stay popular during times to come.