Teenagers: The Future of Heavy Metal?
Do you all remember a band that came out a couple years ago with these teenage kids who played 80s type thrash metal named Black Tide? They made quite a buzz in 2008 with that single "Shockwave"? Well...look at and hear em now...
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My my. How things have changed.
If you think the image is bad try listening to one of their latest singles posted in the link above. Clearly they've been hanging out in LA for too long.
It's really interesting to spot the different trends throughout the years in metal music and how they affect the industry as a whole. I think for any band that wants to become successful, while (Mind you, I said successful not famous or even mainstream) it will be difficult holding on to your integrity as an artist and keeping the original intent of the band pure.
There have been plenty of disbanded bands and "Hiatuses" popping up recently in the metal world that include Cathedral (Seriously, not that much of a loss IMO), The Human Abstract, Oceano, Ludicra, Dismember, and Carnal Forge (loved em').
As famous metal/hard rock icons die, like Dio, Nevermore's Loomis and Williams quit, Arch Enemy releasing the fucking godawful Khaos Legions (I freaking hate when people misspell something to make it sound cooler, like "kvlt.")and even Killswitch Engage's Howard Jones walks, I'm sure fans are wondering what the sordid and unknown future is headed for metal.
I just heard this Dubstep/Djent/Prog Metal Fusion band or I'm sorry, "project" that made me scratch my head.
I don't have a problem with Djent or experimenting but I'm pretty much DONE with dub step. I never really took to it so I hope that it doesn't bleed too much into metal. *shudders at the thought of a dub step black metal/jazz fusion album*
I'm all for experimentation but I think it certainly comes to a point when your losing a sense of your original and organic sound to the need to be unique and different.
I like my metal traditional, straight to the point, hard, fast, guttural and mean.
To get back on topic, I think teenage metal heads have the right idea. Take the example of Black Tide I have above. They are seemingly influenced by bands like Death, Metallica, and I even hear Testament in there. They clearly had a set style that they started out with.
As you all know, metalcore/deathcore is this looming black cloud that seemingly is engulfing the mainstream music of the genre (anyone still remember nu metal?) and and has clearly seeped into the once virginal ears of Black Tide. That new single that I linked you to sounds like some Attack Attack BS with better guitar work.
Metalcore/Deathcore/all the other cores is where I'm seeing a lot of young people get into metal from and THAT scares me. If a band like the Black Veil Brides is the first band that got you into any kind of metal then you may be doomed for all of eternity.
And here here! That's not to say that there aren't great bands in which young people play in....but for the life of me I can't think of any at the moment that formed RECENTLY who impress me enough to consider mentioning in the blog. I could go on about new releases from excellent bands (Vildhjarta, Across The Sun-thanks Israel-, Arkona, etc) but none formed by younger metal heads.
I honestly think there is a good interesting future for metal, you just have to wade through all the shit to get to it.
What say you?
Side note/P.S: I was walking through Target the other day and saw a black kid around 11 or 12 wearing a Venom T-shirt. I wanted to take a subtle picture but I couldn't because his mum was hanging around. But it made me really happy to see someone so young and black (yeah, I said it) listening to it. True metal knows no age, color or boundaries. I would have been just as happy to see some white kid that age wear the shirt as well. Maybe there is hope.
Comments
I think the problem with teenagers creating metal today is that they are not hungry enough and not innovative enough. I love TRYING to find young bands in the internet, but sometimes they are just trying so hard to sound a certain way that I don't feel any passion behind their music. But I feel for them because SO much innovation has already been done in the past that it's hard - if not impossible - to come out with something totally new. Another problem is that the competition for listener's attention is SO immense, I feel that there are a lot of great young bands out there that I'll never get to hear just because there's just so many bands flooding the market.
But in defense of the teenagers playing in the metal scene, I think that the instrument players of today are SO much better at their instruments than in the past, they can learn so many songs and play them so well that it even parallels the creators of the music in the first place. I dunno. It's hard to see the future of metal right now, to tell the truth.
I know! Black Tide was the only clear example I could think of when trying to conceptualize this topic. It is very hard to try to do something different in an over saturated market where everyone has a band and all the fans have seen everything that the music basically has to offer at the moment. I felt Black Tide was heavily emulating a lot of the older bands but I could TELL they were passionate about the music and were not washed out with any other outside influences yet.
Definetly, the hunger is gone. I don't think you have to work as hard as you used to back before the internet and for that reason, bands are getting lazy. Also they are seeing thousands of other bands doing the same thing, seeing that they are getting famous and billed for tours for a certain kind of genre and thinking, 'Maybe we should try it like that".
And I do agree the musicianship has revved up. The problem is finding a way to constructively use that talent without diluting their sound with other influences.
Nice comment ^^
Sylosis is an example that pops into my head. They play some pretty decent stuff with decent influences, and as far as young bands I can't think of much better. But I still don't like them. They can't put a whole song together right, and the idea of a cohesive album must be completely foreign to them.
I can't think of a band with members under 30 that I actually like. Which is weird, because metal used to be all about the young kids.
Anyway, here is something from D.R.I.:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxDyPBWUCaQ
And here is something from a modern REAL Hardcore Band:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxDyPBWUCaQ
Enjoy! ;)
Okay Khaos Legions may have the stupidly misspelled name, but you are being seriously harsh on it, I thought it was great, easily better than Anthems and Doomsday machine.
As for teenagers, I can relate to what you're saying a bit, I was listening to Sikth the other day, and I thought, "no one will remember this band in the future" and it made me kind of depressed, until I heard that they're getting back together, that cheered me right up.
I don't feel threatened by the likes of Black Veil Brides, that's a band for children, it's like getting upset about Finland's "Hevisaurus" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXhhlYdySqQ
To make it short, in a way they are more ‘Old School’ than one should think. The only thing that is different is the Emo attitude behind the songs. Bands like W.A.S.P. had more of a biker/rocker attitude and/or back ground, but times change. Other than that this band’s music feels like ‘Hair Metal 2.0”, but that is not necessarily a bad things. It is okay for kids to like this music and it is great when this kind of music opens kids for all the other forms of Heavy Metal as well.
Here is an old W.A.S.P. to illustrate what I mean. They have less tattoos and their attitude is a lot meaner, but there are also lots of similarities. The ribbons, the hair, the make-up… You will see what I mean.
http://youtu.be/V5LdwK5rKAU