The Problem With Modern Metal Options

[Todd Simpson]

The main problem for me is that so much of it sounds sooooo freaking similar. Here are two bands. They have nothing to do with each other, yet if you switched the names of the bands on their lyric videos, or even performance vids, I'd have no way to tell you which is which. Blast beats, growls of death, it's all there in blur. The similarities and lack of harmony/melody to distinguish one track/band from another, yields a similarity that just turns me off. Anyone else notice this? Also, the relentless cliches of Devil/Antichrist/666/Horn/Beast/upside down crosses/etc. It's so common now that it's become window dressing imho.





The unwritten rules of Death Metal / Black Metal have become so restrictive, that it's crushing the creativity right out of the entire genre imho. The uniformity of it all just becomes a blast beat blur imho. But maybe it's just me. Anyone a huge fan of this stuff? I keep hearing wads of new bands coming out with new stuff, on small labels but it all sounds pretty much the same to me

I hope this trend dies a noble death and Metal embraces a lack of these binding unwritten rules of form that are choking it to death. One band that I've found who seems to embody such a change is a band called Jinger, fronted by a nice gal who mostly speaks Ukranian. They are Ukraine based band and they sorta RAWWK. The "Metal/Growls" start about 3 minutes in, but before that, we get some contrast.




She can actually sing, as well as growl. Also the subtle intro, makes the heavy bits sound heavy imho. IF it's just blast beats from the first snare, it becomes white noise. The lack of dynamics in most modern Death Metal is it's worst element, for me at least. What do you guys think? Found any bands that break the mold? Please share!


Todd

This post has been edited by Todd Simpson: Feb 19 2018, 10:53 PM

[George Hlio]

I couldn't agree more Todd! I cannot listen to Deathcore or modern death/black anymore because most of those sound exactly the same!
Also although Periphery is one of my favourite bands (and some other djent bands like Monuments) I must state that djent is saturated too!
Such great guitar players playing too techniquelly not appreciating the art of simplicity imho...Because out of simplicity the technical part will sound awesome because it will stand out just as you said the heavy part will sound heavier when a soft or acoustic part proceeds it!!!

[Todd Simpson]

I'm glad that it's not just me It seems that ever since BLEED hit the scene, every other band started synching the chug to the kick drum and it just became a "thing". It invaded all forms of Metal. I can live with that. It's the blatant similarity among all the "core" bands that is really starting to put
me off. I love periphery as well. Even they are starting to do Metal By Numbers. It's all just so predictable that frankly it's boring to me. Singers that never actually sing are starting to grate on me as well. I'm all for a good growl, but just like with music, if there is no contrast between the growl
and actual singing, the growl becomes white noise. IT's almost like Metal has become a form of TECHNO disco music. Where its all forced through the same style tube. You know how most techno is the same drum beat? kick, snare, kick, snare, rinse repeat. You could just do a digital sample of
a blast beat, and sample some growls and some guitars so distorted and fast that you can't really understand what they are playing and just pump out all the core metal you want with a midi keyboard. I found a "Death metal Generator" on the web and it illustrated the problem quite well.
It just put random metal bits together and it sound like core.

I hope bands like Jinger are the future. Otherwise, I fear Metal will just choke itself to death.

I'm on a PC netbook typing this and I notice it's really messing with the formatting. Sorry about that. I need to switch back to my mac.
Todd

I couldn't agree more Todd! I cannot listen to Deathcore or modern death/black anymore because most of those sound exactly the same!
Also although Periphery is one of my favourite bands (and some other djent bands like Monuments) I must state that djent is saturated too!
Such great guitar players playing too techniquelly not appreciating the art of simplicity imho...Because out of simplicity the technical part will sound awesome because it will stand out just as you said the heavy part will sound heavier when a soft or acoustic part proceeds it!!!

This post has been edited by Todd Simpson: Feb 20 2018, 04:32 AM

[George Hlio]

Oh sure thing Todd! Jinger sound really good!
Like the Death Metal generator there is also a "Breakdown radomizer"! No inspiration required...
I simply cannot hear another "new" breakdown from a modern band! I understand that there are similarities in Metal and that is great...Similar riffs are great as "reinventing the wheel" is not required and we all enjoy "good" Metal!
The complete lack of identity is what bothers me the most!

[fzalfa]

Totaly agree with you Todd......

the two first video are the right examples !!

the last one is really cool

Cheers

Laurent

[Todd Simpson]

Glad it's not just me again! Yeah, there are soooooo many vids like the first two on youtube that it's become impossible to tell them apart. I get notified when various record lables/bands put out new stuff and I always go check it out. In the past few years I've noticed the identify of any give death/core/black/doom/etc. band has simply faded away and become part of a trend where each band wants to sound and look like the other bands in their 'scene". I don't think it will last too much longer as the market for that music is just not that large and when all the bands are churning out the same crap, there is no point in listening to any of it. Glad you liked Jinger

Todd

Totaly agree with you Todd......

the two first video are the right examples !!

the last one is really cool

Cheers

Laurent

Agreed. It's the complete lack of identity that really turns me off. I'm hopeful this trend will run it's course as folks just stop buying music that sound just like the rest of the bands in any given genre and the infinite fracturing of genres doesn't seem to be helping. Now that there are strict rules of form for being a Black/Cult/Funeral Doom/Core/Death Metal band, creativity has simply vanished. Thank goodness there are bands like Jinger that just do there own thing. I remember an interview with FENRIS

Todd

Oh sure thing Todd! Jinger sound really good!
Like the Death Metal generator there is also a "Breakdown radomizer"! No inspiration required...
I simply cannot hear another "new" breakdown from a modern band! I understand that there are similarities in Metal and that is great...Similar riffs are great as "reinventing the wheel" is not required and we all enjoy "good" Metal!
The complete lack of identity is what bothers me the most!

This post has been edited by Todd Simpson: Feb 21 2018, 04:13 AM

[MonkeyDAthos]

Sorry for the long spam!

Here's some of metal (and its sub genres) I've been listening to lately.








Also really dug this album, from 2015. (quite a bit influenced by between the buried and me, but they do a better work integrating other genres imo.)


From the more extreme side, haven't listen to much metal music. But from 2014, Behemoth's Satanist album is really good imo.
I am really looking forward from new stuff from them.


On a more less growling/or no growls at all side.
Been really digging this band.



But funny enough the last metal album I've listen and thought well here's something new. Was from wayyy back in 2011, sadly the band is no more. It's kind hard to digest but one of my all time favorites.

[Darius Wave]

Don't worry Todd! You're not alone on this. I'm wondering where is all this going to end up. Everyone sounding the same? Only one, proper tone of every instrument? Like you said - you can put a few random modern bands on one CD and often not much would figureout it's actually not a one band album

[Gabriel Leopardi]

Problem with modern metal or modern music?

Check out the mainstream Spoti lists, most of the songs sound very similar regarding production, and style.

[Todd Simpson]

These are some fine pulls indeed. Dynamics, even some clean vocals and actual singing. This is what I hope METAL becomes. Thanks for sharing!!!

Sorry for the long spam!
.
.


But funny enough the last metal album I've listen and thought well here's something new. Was from wayyy back in 2011, sadly the band is no more. It's kind hard to digest but one of my all time favorites.
.

This post has been edited by Todd Simpson: Feb 21 2018, 09:20 PM

[Todd Simpson]

Thats the worst part yeah? You could put all these bands on one CD and not be able to tell the difference. That is usually the signal that a given genre is nearing the end of it's life. The same thing happened with "GLAM METAL" way back when. All of the sudden, every band was packed with guys that had HUGE poodle permed hair and all looked just about the same. Also they all sounded just about the same. Not long after, Grunge came in and took over.

Metal has gone back underground where it sorta belonged to begin with, but the same problems have followed it. The push for similarity and uniformity to emulate bands that are selling even a few records. Hopefully we are nearing the end of this as people just get tired of it and look for something that sound new.

Don't worry Todd! You're not alone on this. I'm wondering where is all this going to end up. Everyone sounding the same? Only one, proper tone of every instrument? Like you said - you can put a few random modern bands on one CD and often not much would figureout it's actually not a one band album

Good point!! I don't listen to much popular music as most of it kinda tuns my stomach. However, after listening to a bit of it,
most of it sounds very similar as well. the uniformity push, to sound like whatever is selling/charting, seems to be crushing music in general. Money has gotten tight in the music biz since the collapse of CD sales. So they are just not taking any risks anymore. They are more like the movie industry pumping out sequels and remakes to stay afloat.

Problem with modern metal or modern music?

Check out the mainstream Spoti lists, most of the songs sound very similar regarding production, and style.