The Return of True Metal

http://www.examiner.com/metal-music-in-houston/the-return-of-true-metal

Quote :

Brett Stevens, Houston Metal Music Examiner
December 26, 2011


Something interesting happened around 2003. At this point, the black metal community woke up and realized a couple of unsettling things.

First, they suddenly saw that since 1995, nothing much had been happening and the few good bands had been drowned out by a sea of imitators. Second, they recognized that what was replacing the "trve kvlt" black metal was a new form of music that mixed indie rock, shoegaze, emo, post-hardcore, and punk rock with black metal and death metal flavorings.

This was a counterpart to what happened in death metal around the year 2000 when "metalcore," or technical hardcore with death metal stylings, effectively replaced death metal. We now call this "technical death metal" and "melodic death metal" but it has less in common with death metal than breakaway punk bands like Neurosis and Human Remains.

Starting a few years later, the "true metal" movement was born. It exists in several genres, but has grouped heavy metal and speed metal into power metal, pushed death metal and doom metal into the same genre, and in black metal, has barely manifested itself at all. As black metal is the most popular underground metal genre perhaps ever, it will be the last to fall.
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The press is even starting to notice.

Between revivals of classic heavy metal genres and iconic bands' reunion tours, it's clear that a love of tradition still runs deep in aggressive music culture. Metalheads are infamous for their Klingon-like loyalty to the bands and styles they love; many metal heads don't just let their musical tastes inform their listening habits, but everything from their style of dress to their social circles. In 2011, many bands sought to honour these hardcore fans with tours and albums that paid tribute to, and drew inspiration from, respected genre conventions. While still outside the mainstream, aggressive music now has the strength and power of a rich musical heritage all its own, and found success in celebrating that.

The year saw many significant bands reuniting, including the recent announcement that the original Black Sabbath line-up would be writing a new album together and embarking upon a world tour. Anthrax reunited with vocalist Joey Belladonna to record a new album, and thrash's Big Four (Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax) toured together for the first time in their mutual history.

Successful genre revivals, such as thrash and the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, continued to thrive. Unlike other genres, metal is not trendy, and to delve into a particular style of metal means to invest in a vast back-catalogue as well as seek out new music. Fans of NWOBHM are just as likely to be listening to old Raven LPs as they are to be enjoying the latest 3 Inches of Blood release. Albums are valued by fans for how much they adhere to the conventions of these beloved genres; to say something sounds exactly like an early example is a form of praise.

It's not so much that true metal is a genre, but a label that bands are applying to their music to say that they are not part of the newer hybrid genre, and that they want to return to the spirit that produced the great music of the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. The spirit is what allows bands to create music that carries the power of older metal, say fans, and many fans suggest that the newer music has lost that spirit because it's going in another direction. Whatever the case, the true metal movement is suggesting that metal isn't just a bunch of techniques and tropes, but a gestalt that ties them all together and communicates some kind of union with power and transcendence of the human condition, while more recent metal hybrids have been all about celebrating that human condition.

It should be exciting to watch this pan out.

Have fun...

A lot of black metal folks grew up and realized their music was unlistenable garbage and started drifting into "evil" traditional metal. I've noticed this myself and heard others comment on this phenomenon.

Black metal is generally my least favorite style of metal yet it is also a style that I find very enjoyable when done well. The problem is there are too many bands copying what Bathory achieved in the 80s (a style that Quorthon abandoned by the early 90s) and few are doing anything new an inventive like say, Absu or Agalloch. Some, and particularly the kvlt fan base, will contend that neither of those bands is black metal, much as they will decry bands such as Dimmu Borgir as having any connection to the genre. In that regard black metal is the most conservative and least progressive genre at a fanbase level.

it's possible to like old & new styles. i don't really concern myself weather something is "true" or not. i don't even care if it's considered metal.

No matter how or why you label it.....comes down to what is good and what is not. For example "black metal" and "glam" have lots in common. Over saturation of a true and tested formula in which image holds as much if not more merit than substance. Just like the way all the MTV bands sounded alike and looked alike back in the day. Maybe the black metal guys are gonna wear flannel, sing about how much Lucifer whined when God kicked him out of heaven, and move to Seattle.

Most Black metal bands evolved greatly over time. Sigh is hardly recognizable compared to their first album. In a good way of course.

Then.


Now!

I have to say all I listened to for a long long time was death and black metal and now I dont care much for it. My tastes have changed to the point where I like melodic songs. I really care who is trying to beat out whom for the title of 'heaviest' or 'most brutal' anymore.

Not a big fan opf black metal. I did however enjoy the latest immortal album.

Black Metal isn't my cup O tea either, howaever I can only listen to those Commercial ghay Black Metal bands such as the one that is fronted by Dani.

Just depends on the type of black metal I guess.

I have always tended to like the stuff with better production and where the music is distinguishable rather than being samey and monotonous for an entire album. Bands like Enslaved, Borknagar, Immortal, Emperor, Absu, Dimmu Borgir, Satyricon, Old Man's Child and Marduk are some of my favorite in that regard.

Some of those bands may have started out being a bit samey and at times have stuck to their 'traditional' roots but by and large I found them more accessible than the type of bands that stick to a minimalist song structure.

In saying that, I do like bands like Darkthrone and Mayhem (and even those have 'progressed' outside of their initial black metal style) however I am not too fond of the thousand other clones of those bands.

Again it depends on the band and I don't want to call any out or make a blanket statement and say that's it ... all that are inspired by Bathory are senseless and boring. For example, I recently heard this band called Taake (pronounced Toke) which sound really cool even though they fall in the early 90s Darkthrone category but that's not to say they sound bad - they manage to still sound fun.

Generally speaking, my 'main genres' are thrash metal (of course) and a mixture of traditional / power metal bands. When it comes to more extreme forms of metal, I play it on band by band basis. In other words, I tend to be more tolerant of similar sounding bands in the thrash / traditional / power sub-genres than in extreme metal.

How did this turn into a Black Metal discussion?

tr000 grimm kvlt blakk mettle ist arcayne steele!!

I don't think 'true metal' ever went away, and to quote Malcolm Dome, this is the only time you will get to see the entire history of genre, with both old, newer metal bands still performing and recording.

So it's the original members of the second wave of black metallers who's responsible for the NWOTHM ?? Then how come all these bands have so young members?

I think music goes in phases in popularity. a genre gets popular, then falls back and a new genre takes it place. I imagine sometime grunge will come back

kmorg wrote:

So it's the original members of the second wave of black metallers who's responsible for the NWOTHM ??

How did you get that from the article? If anything, it states that the black metal scene will be "the last to fall".

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

If anything, it states that the black metal scene will be "the last to fall".

i didn't really get that statement. fall from what? there are both "true" black metal bands (replicas of Venom, Bathory, Hellhammer, etc), & hybrid bands (Lifelover, Sigh, The Kovenant, etc.). black metal isn't much different than any other metal in that respect. there are still bands that stay true to the original formula. the article kinda lost me there.

I have a problem with using the word "true" in front of any type of music. I mean, who makes the judgement on what is true and what is false? Where are the unbreakable rules written?

Thus it has no meaning.

I think that article is a bag of gas. It sounds like it is written by someone who just got into metal and realised there are so many different subgenres that metalheads love and that metalheads are hardcore followers of the genre as a whole. Nothing new there.

As for true metal? The term was widely used at a time when nu metal was popular but that was sbout a decade ago. In time its usage has somewhat fizzled out. Also at the time, power metal was far more popular than it is today - it seemed like every town in Germany, Sweden and Finland had one. Used in that context it made sense and if anything it was a continuation of Manowar's attitude from a decade earlier to the pop / hair metal bands.

S.D. wrote:

I have a problem with using the word "true" in front of any type of music. I mean, who makes the judgement on what is true and what is false? Where are the unbreakable rules written?

Thus it has no meaning.

true.

Well there is something in the article I do agree with and that is:

Quote :

It's not so much that true metal is a genre, but a label that bands are applying to their music to say that they are not part of the newer hybrid genre, and that they want to return to the spirit that produced the great music of the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. The spirit is what allows bands to create music that carries the power of older metal, say fans, and many fans suggest that the newer music has lost that spirit because it's going in another direction.

This has been evident since the mid 90's when grunge and nu-metal came to be. I don't get how those bands got signed and were praised so highly or why the classic style ever left. Same with thrash! Seemed like everyone was dumbing down their music and playing just monotonous drizzle that NEVER appealed to me ever! Metal really did lose its spirit for awhile, even though I constantly searched high and low for the bands that still carried it that weren't stupid or cheesy.

S.D. wrote:

I have a problem with using the word "true" in front of any type of music. I mean, who makes the judgement on what is true and what is false? Where are the unbreakable rules written?

Thus it has no meaning.

+1

something having multiple conflicting meanings doesnt make it completely meaningless. and if a word is so hotly contested, its probably something that has a lot of meaning.

or are things like "human rights" and "music" and "life" just totally empty placekeepers that communicate nothing to any human? sure, words need context to adequately convey their intended truths, but thats the nature of all language.