To begin this blog, I was going to have a video showcasing the difference between hardcore dancing and mosh pitting (is that an appropriate term?). However, all the videos sucked so instead here's a guy getting kicked in the nuts.
Crappy videos aside, the point of this long, un-awaited follow up to my last posting (dated June 11, 2008) is to finally engage in the discussion of what the hell is happening to metal. The what was originally meant to be a trio of blogs stemmed from a class project on the sociological reasons for the development of hardcore and metal music. I got a B on the project. See kids, do your homework in advance, not the night before. Still, the project made me think about the music. Why did these styles of music gain the steam they did? I won't recount everything here, but suffice it to say you can watch American Hardcore and Metal: A Headbanger's Journey for a crash course in both styles developments. What I am mainly concerned with here is, where is metal now?
Metal has been en vogue for a number of years now. I could cite a number of reasons (the Bush administration, the War in Iraq, the blandness of late 90's music, the coming of age of youth raised on In Flames, At the Gates, etc.) but really those don't matter that much right now. Metal, in 2009, is a fractured, stale, cookie cutter industry. That's right. I'm here to say that for all the good things that have happened to metal since the turn of the century, nine years in the genre has failed to bring about what it so desperately needs. New ideas. When the metalcore boom occured between 2003-2005 the bands sounded fresh. Most of this was due to those bands having had the chance to slog through the club and unsigned scene for a number of years. Plus these were people who were genuine fans of both hardcore and metal and had found a way to combine the two. Shadow's Fall, Killswitch Engage, All That Remains, Unearth, Lamb of God, God Forbid, Chimaira, Shai Hulud... the list goes on. While nothing these bands were doing was inventive, it was new. It was exciting. Soon it got bogged down by imitators and trend setters. Some of those bands saw this as a chance to grow and change (Lamb of God, God Forbid, Chimaira, to name a few) and some saw this as a chance to do the same thing over again (Shadows Fall, Killswitch Engage, and a host of others). Some soon saw metalcore as too weak, too by the numbers, too "un-metal" I suppose. Enter Deathcore and the current trend.
Before I continue, I must admit that I play in a bonafide Deathcore band. We are called Ruins of Tomorrow and I absolutely love playing in this band. Compared with my past musical endeavors, I feel like I am playing with fully committed, articulate and creative musicians. I will make no bones about it. We have breakdowns. We have melodeath, swede heavy riffs. We've got two vocalists. We have fans who two step and hardcore dance and who spend more time on their hair than I would ever care too. I say this because I am going to be unwavering in my accusations against this current trend of deathcore, knowing full well that the "true kvlt" will label me a hypocrite, bandwagoner, or pay me no mind whatsoever because at last check, 84 people have viewed my blog.
So deathcore, we meet at last. For those who need a primer, I am not giving one. I'm simply sending you to wikipedia and horrifying all of my ex-English profs in the process. I didn't really discover this phenomenon until I joined my current band and they began talking about Whitechapel, Despised Icon, Suicide Silence, etc. What I found was an attempt at a new take on being heavy and brutal and I kind of liked it. At the same time, I didn't. I found in it a lot of trappings that made metalcore stale. Excessive use of breakdowns, unimaginative swede rip off riffing, chants, and that bane of all "true headbangers", hardcore dancing. There was little sounding longevity to the style and as second tier bands have emerged (Rose Funeral, Oceano, Emmure, ABACABB) there is less hope for longevity. It's not that these bands can't play. They all have chops. Lots of chops. But there is no, and I mean NO real creativity in them. Personally, I enjoy listening to most of these bands when I am pissed off. It's a great fucking release, but don't fool yourself into thinking that they are adding anything new to the metal gene pool. These bands come off as recessive genes, adding the brown eyes, brown hair, moderate skin tone and other plain white, European traits to an already boring looking person (how's that for Eurocentrism?). But this person is fun to hang out with. A lot of fun. I think I've put my finger on it. Metal, in it's current form is less about innovation and more about imitation. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but eventually the flattered upon says, "enough for fucks sake! Be your own person!"
As I am typing this, I realize there are a host of great albums out there. From 2008, we have Origin's Antithesis, Becoming the Archetype's Dichotomy, Meshuggah's Obzen, Gojira's The Way of All Flesh and more recently God Forbid's Earthsblood. I'm sure most of you could compile your own list of greats from 2008 and 2009, but these are the ones that come to mind. Mastodon's Crack the Skye proves to be a contender to inject a much needed shot of ingenuity into the genre, but really isn't that band kind of their own at this point? Some of you could even point out the most obscure death metal band as the contender for king of the proverbial mountain and some of you would say, "you overlooked insert my favortie band of the moment!" Here is the other problem I see as I wind up this long winded, go no where blog. There is a lot of metal out there. The internet and the ease of sharing your music has caused an influx of new bands that hasn't been seen since... well ever. Sorting out the wheat from the chaff is becoming increasingly harder. Something has to change.
But what? I don't actually have any answers aside from, be more unique and creative. But where to go from here? Become more technically proficient in hopes of becoming more creative? Start listening to other genres and add them? Get heavier? Faster? Slower? It's all been done. Where metal will go from here is anyone's guess. Hopefully someone will spice up the metal stew soon. For now, we all must be content with having ourselves spoonfed a satisfying, if an ultimately bland metal meal. Metal is more popular than it may have ever been, but is it better? The answer, like all hard questions, is yes and no. For the moment, I need to go practice, because ultimately, someone has to do something and that's my starting point. Keep the metal faith alive!
