Melodic Metalcore

A common misconception that I see advertised across less-cultured corners of the online metal community is that "metalcore is not metal." This is astonishing to me, considering the differences between Lady Gaga and, say... Converge. If anyone tries to look me in the eyes and claim that Converge isn't metal because of the suffix -core, that may prompt a punch to the gut. So why did this misconception become so widespread? Well it is due, in part, to the arrival of melodic metalcore. Commonly used synonymously with metalcore, melodic metalcore is actually quite different from its predecessor.

If metalcore, sometimes known now as "metallic hardcore" to make up for this genre confusion, is hardcore punk with metal tendencies, then melodic metalcore is metal with hardcore tendencies. Taking influence particularly from thrash metal and melodic death metal, melodic metalcore is a much more technically proficient, musically-minded substitute in comparison to metalcore's raw, chunky riffage and aggressive beatdowns. While maintaining the hardcore-influence through midtempo breakdowns, melodic metalcore focuses significantly more on standard song structures and have choruses in which clean vocals are used.

The genre began in the late '90s with bands like Shadows Fall, Darkest Hour, Unearth, All That Remains, God Forbid, Prayer for Cleansing, and Killswitch Engage, but it took until the early 2000s for these bands to really gain traction and release their now-quintessential works. The style boomed after this early surge of bands, with major releases and relatively mainstream success coming from subsequent bands such as Atreyu, As I Lay Dying, Avenged Sevenfold, Parkway Drive, Trivium, August Burns Red, and Bullet for My Valentine, among others. It's here where our core misconception was established. Progressive metalcore bands like Protest the Hero, Between the Buried and Me, SikTh, and The Human Abstract also began to arrive on the scene.

A handful of these bands, most notably Atreyu and Bullet for My Valentine, made use of whinier, more emo-tinged clean vocals, often singing of lyrical themes more prevalent in emo, pop punk, and post-hardcore such as breakups. This would continue on as the genre became more and more popular: the late 2000s brought bands like The Devil Wears Prada, A Day to Remember, Bring Me the Horizon, blessthefall, and Asking Alexandria into the fray, which, combined with the onset of things such as Warped Tour, resulted in a wave of "scene" listeners, primarily of a younger audience. This negatively associated the genre with the "teenybopper label," despite many of the bands that had originated the style still being relatively respected and enjoyed by "true metalheads." It is important to note that public reception and subjective opinion has no legitimate correlation to musical quality, as I enjoy many of the bands that are considered "non-metal" by elitist crowds.

Recommended '00s melodic metalcore listening:
1. Killswitch Engage - Alive or Just Breathing (2002)
2. Shadows Fall - The Art of Balance (2002)
3. Unearth - The Oncoming Storm (2004)
4. Protest the Hero - Kezia (2006)
5. Darkest Hour - Deliver Us (2007)

The 2000s also brought about two significant subgenres of melodic metalcore. The first to surface was nintendocore, an offshoot of melodic metalcore that took influence from video game music, particularly chiptune and bit music. It often is a melting pot of melodic metalcore, post-hardcore, mathcore, and noise rock sensibilities, with bands sometimes being far more abrasive than many of their melodic metalcore counterparts. Lyrical themes are often gaming references, and full of tongue-in-cheek early internet-era humor. The most popular of these artists would have to be HORSE the Band, though others such as Sky Eats Airplane, Totally Radd!!, Iamerror, I Shot the Duck Hunt Dog, Heccra, and Random Encounter.

Recommended nintendocore listening:
1. Totally Radd!! - Shark Attack Day Camp (2004)
2. Sky Eats Airplane - Sky Eats Airplane (2006)
3. HORSE the Band - Desperate Living (2009)
4. Monomate - Grand Battle (2010)
5. Heccra - Heccra-Kazooie (2013)

The other, more prominently-featured melodic metalcore offshoot of this time was trancecore. Sometimes referred to as electrocore, electronicore, and most infamously crabcore, trancecore mixed aspects of melodic metalcore with trance, pop punk, synthpop and a plethora of other genres as well. Being rooted in electronic dance music, trancecore was far more accessible and catchy than some of the earlier waves of melodic metalcore (and most metal in general). As a result, many of the bands blew up in popularity such as Enter Shikari, Attack Attack!, We Came as Romans, The Word Alive, Asking Alexandria, I See Stars, Crossfaith, and Jamie's Elsewhere.

Recommended trancecore listening:
1. Enter Shikari - Take to the Skies (2007)
2. Attack Attack! - Someday Came Suddenly (2008)
3. We Came as Romans - To Plant a Seed (2009)
4. Asking Alexandria - Stand Up and Scream (2009)
5. The Word Alive - Deceiver (2010)

In the 2010s, melodic metalcore began to tie itself closer to its metallic hardcore relative. Bands that had previously or concurrently established themselves as hardcore-influenced metal acts also found ways to include melodic choruses and passages, blending the styles in a seamless fashion. Among these were While She Sleeps, Erra, Architects, Wage War, Phinehas, Bury Tomorrow, Miss May I, Ice Nine Kills, and melodic hardcore giants Counterparts. Other lesser-known artists took the reigns on developing their own sounds such as Silent Civilian, Malrun, and Times of Grace. Many giants of the genre jumped ship in favor of more alternative metal-centric sounds such as All That Remains and Avenged Sevenfold, but others continued to grow and thrive in their own ways, with Parkway Drive and August Burns Red laying considerable claim on the metalcore community at large.

Recommended '10s melodic metalcore listening:
1. While She Sleeps - This is the Six (2012)
2. August Burns Red - Rescue & Restore (2013)
3. Erra - Augment (2013)
4. Architects - All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us (2016)
5. Counterparts - Nothing Left to Love (2019)

As quickly as "true metal fans" are to discredit music that's catchy or appeals to a wider audience, melodic metalcore stands as a testament as to why progression in music doesn't always mean becoming more underground. Listening to death metal and black metal bands like Cannibal Corpse or Mayhem, one would never really guess that metal-related things could ever reach as wide of an audience as these melodic metalcore bands have. Music serves to inspire, to reach out with whatever message the listener needs to hear. To some, Avenged Sevenfold's Waking the Fallen may be a first step towards a life of metal listening. I know it was mine. Without these bands to bridge the gap between popular music and underground metal, a good chunk of today's modern fanbase may not exist. It's up to music like this to continue to innovate, to initiate a wake of new metal listeners.

Note: Hello all! It's bittersweet to inform you all that this is the last entry of Zach Buddie's Guide to Metal... It seems as though I've covered, in a general sense, all there is to cover. Of course, there's always going to be more music, there will always be bands that I miss, and there will always be new innovation that could lead to all-new genres! But for now, it's time for me to continue onward. With that being said, I might take up another project: a guide to alternative music, of sorts. I've been getting into a lot more post-punk, dream pop, shoegaze and the like... perhaps I'd take on that challenge sometime. Who's to say? But for now, thank you all so very much for reading, I hope you've enjoyed listening to things you may not have listened to before!
~Zach

Symphonic Metal

Symphonic metal is a difficult genre to pin down. Most, if not all, styles of metal (or music in general) can easily have the 'symphonic' title bestowed upon it somewhere, as long as symphonic or orchestral elements are utilized in an otherwise unexpected formula. Does simply making use of non-guitar stringed instruments define an entire genre?

Symphonic metal, sometimes known as orchestral metal, operatic metal, or (in more specific cases) "cello metal," is at its core a style of metal that takes major influences from the instrumentation of Western classical music. It has its roots in symphonic rock, progressive rock, and the epic grandeur of 1990s power metal, though has since become equally as affixed to the conventions of gothic metal as well, sometimes to the point of lumping the genre terms together synonymously. Despite this misconception, symphonic metal can just as easily be applied to extreme metal subgenres like death metal and black metal. Vocals are a key element to symphonic metal, with bands often utilizing what's called as a "beauty and the beast" vocal style, with an operatic female vocalist juxtaposed against a more gruff male vocalist. Choirs are also commonly used.

In the early 1990s, symphonic metal was a power metal offshoot. Bands like X Japan, Angra, Kamelot, Royal Hunt, Thundercross, Nightwish, and arguably most famously Rhapsody all solidified the orchestra as a valuable tool in their metal quests. But where power metal bands were using symphonies to accentuate their grandiosity, gothic metal bands like Lacrimosa and Estatic Fear were using it to cloak the listener in an enveloping gloom, a darkness akin to that of doom metal. Also of note was the death metal band Therion, which began to heavily rely on symphonic and orchestral elements as well. As the decade progressed, symphonic black metal began to arise, taking hold as its own animal. Bands like Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir, Emperor, Arcturus, Summoning, and Diabolical Masquerade took notes from the symphonic gothic metal immediately preceding them, and used the darkness of the orchestra to create an icy, windblown sonic landscape.

Recommended '90s symphonic metal:
1. Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse (1994)
2. Therion - Theli (1996)
3. Nightwish - Oceanborn (1998)
4. Rhapsody - Symphony of Enchanted Lands (1998)
5. Summoning - Stronghold (1999)

In the 2000s, all four of these main branches of symphonic metal continued to spread. The core sound of symphonic metal began to bloom in this era, with bands like Nightwish leading the charge for operatic metal superstars such as Within Temptation, Epica, and Delain. The power metal of Rhapsody continues onward, as well as newcomers like Dark Moor, Cain's Offering, and Shaman. Symphonic gothic metal saw the appearance of Sirenia and After Forever. Therion had since moved away from their initial death metal sound, but bands like Hollenthon, Septicflesh, Eternal Tears of Sorrow, and Fleshgod Apocalypse quickly move in to take up the symphonic death metal torch. Symphonic black metal continued to thrive as well, with major contributions from artists like Sigh, Anorexia Nervosa, and the established greats of Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth. Arcturus moved away from the black metal sound in favor of a progressive metal and avant-garde metal-oriented style. Also of note is the surge of symphonic elements in folk metal music, such as that of Turisas.

Recommended '00s symphonic metal listening:
1. Rhapsody - Dawn of Victory (2000)
2. Therion - Secret of the Runes (2001)
3. Arcturus - The Sham Mirrors (2002)
4. Nightwish - Once (2004)
5. Septicflesh - Communion (2008)

As far as the 2010s go, it seems as though most of the fundamental four of the symphonic metal genre crossovers have only continued to improve upon themselves. First off, symphonic death metal is (in my opinion) the strongest of the main four to begin with, and Septicflesh's constant pouring out of quality material is a beautiful representation of why this sound just works so well. Symphonic power metal came back in a big way as well, with plenty of new blood in the form of Dragonland, Orion's Reign, Orden Ogan, Ancient Bards, Gloryhammer, Light Bringer, and Pathfinder, to name a few. Symphonic black metal continues to thrive with bands such as Carach Angren, Shade Empire, Aquilus, and Caladan Brood. Symphonic gothic metal, however, seems to have fallen by the wayside, becoming more and more enveloped in the prevailing "pure" symphonic style of Epica, Lacuna Coil and Within Temptation, who have since incorporated alternative metal aspects into their sound. Speaking of alternative metal, the brief fluttering success of Apocalyptica (the band with the label "cello metal") also saw for a surge in symphonic metal in the mainstream eye. Symphonic progressive metal like Myrath and Wilderun, as well as symphonic folk metal like Equilibrium and Wintersun, both have solidified themselves as powerful forces in the symphonic metal system by now as well.

Recommended '10s symphonic metal listening:
1. Septicflesh - The Great Mass (2011)
2. Dragonland - Under the Grey Banner (2011)
3. Carach Angren - Where the Corpses Sink Forever (2012)
4. Epica - The Quantum Enigma (2014)
5. Wilderun - Veil of Imagination (2019)

Overall, symphonic metal has established itself as its own animal within the metal scene, but it does so in an almost viral way; weaving itself in and out of other pre-existing metal genres, and leaving its mark with a grand presence that few styles of metal can equal. From its subtle haunting choirs to its full-fledged orchestras, symphonic metal will continue to innovate and integrate into the cracks and crevices of the metal world for years to come.

Note: Hey all! Sorry this is a bit of a shorter one, but it's finals week... I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy out there, good luck to those finishing up their semesters, and thank you for reading!

Post-Metal

It's no secret that the metal community tends to create microcosms. Sounds that a handful of bands begin to do, trying to break away from conventions and monotonies of the status quo, end up catching on and becoming entire waves or even subgenres of their own. Some of these styles, to the beginner or untrained ear, can be hard to truly encapsulate with words as to what makes them a distinct thing. Maybe it's how eclectic the style can be, or maybe it's a particular playing method... in the case of post-metal, it's about the atmosphere.

Post-metal doesn't have any one unified sound, per se. Instead, it aims to play metal that's ascended from the formulas that other metal styles may be boxed into. Long, drawn out crescendos of songs, often with minimal or nonexistent vocals reminiscent of post-rock, washy, reverb-laden instrumentation often seen in shoegaze... but with the grit, honesty, and distortion of a metal band. "Post-" as a descriptor, often means something along the lines of "new," "experimental," or "atmospheric," when in reality post-metal aims to be all three.

The genre was first applicable to bands from the early nineties branching out of sludge metal. Sometimes post-metal bands are referred to as "atmospheric sludge metal," though post-metal has since grown into its own animal, with atmosludge serving as a meeting point between the post-metal and sludge metal rivers. Among these '90s atmospheric sludge metal bands were post-metal's progenitors: Neurosis, Nada, Godflesh, Lvmen, Dirge, Red Harvest, nd Gigandhi. This first wave of bands was still very much a sludge metal movement, so the aggression and hardcore punk-esque attitude was still present in their works.

Recommended '90s post-metal listening:
1. Gigandhi - Rafflesia (1996)
2. Red Harvest - Hybreed (1996)
3. Neurosis - Through Silver in Blood (1996)
4. Lvmen - Lvmen (1998)
5. Dirge - Down, Last Level (1998)

In the 2000s, post-metal took on a whole new level of meaning. The term now became an applicable label to almost any sort of band that was pushing boundaries in ways almost polar opposite to that of progressive metal bands. Post-metal was slower, more drawn out, more wishy washy and dreamlike, opting to experiment through textures in a manner most similar to ambient artists. The genre still held its ties to sludge metal, with the massive success of bands such as Isis, Cult of Luna, Pelican, Minsk, Rosetta, Amenra, Ghost Brigade, and The Ocean. However, post-metal extended its limbs surely and effectively to other branches of metal: from the folk metal and atmospheric black metal of Agalloch, to the shoegaze of Jesu and Alcest, to the drone metal of Boris and The Angelic Process, and to the strange avant-garde metal of Kayo Dot. Post-metal was an underlying theme in the development of many major metal movements.

Recommended '00s post-metal listening:
1. Kayo Dot - Choirs of the Eye (2003)
2. Isis - Panopticon (2004)
3. Rosetta - The Galilean Satellites (2005)
4. Cult of Luna - Somewhere Along the Highway (2006)
5. Agalloch - Ashes Against the Grain (2006)

What the 2010s did for post-metal, perhaps most notably, was led to its connection to blackgaze, a subgenre of atmospheric black metal. In the aforementioned developments with bands like Jesu and Alcest, black metal began to creep more and more into the post-metal world, having the binding threads of huge, distant-sounding walls of guitar strums and focus on atmosphere. Bands like Deafheaven, Altar of Plagues, Furia, Oathbreaker, and Blut aus Nord among others would all create a wave known to some as post-black metal. That's not to say that the other post-metal offshoots died off, quite the contrary. Sludge metal-rooted post-metal still reigns as well, with bands such as Blindead, Sólstafir, Thou, Obscure Sphinx, Old Man Gloom, and Waste of Space Orchestra releasing incredible works. Heavyweights like Neurosis and Dirge would continue as strong as ever as well. Not to mention the groundbreaking collaboration between Cult of Luna and Julie Christmas, Mariner. Even post-death metal is in the works at this point, thanks to the band Ulcerate. Post-rock and shoegaze remain as strong as ever in these bands as well, with Russian Circles, Holy Fawn, Toundra, Year of No Light, and This Will Destroy You.

Recommended '10s post-metal listening:
1. Alcest - Écailles de lune (2010)
2. Ulcerate - The Destroyers of All (2011)
3. The Ocean - Pelagial (2013)
4. Deafheaven - Sunbather (2013)
5. Cult of Luna and Julie Christmas - Mariner (2016)

Post-metal defies explanation in the greatest of ways. It pokes its head into as many facets of metal as it can, and leaves its mark. The mark of post-metal is shrouding the listener in impenetrable and dreamlike atmosphere, cloaking the metal machismo with the hypnotic walls of sound we've come to know and love. And it will continue to leave its mark for as long as there are musicians welcoming textures and soundscapes where simple traditional note selection and structuring cannot scratch the itch.

Folk Metal

Folk metal is a tricky style of metal to encapsulate in a single blog post, since it varies so wildly depending on its geographic location. Many of these metal genres I've discussed before have ties to some sort of place: Thrash metal has the Bay Area in California, death metal had the Tampa area of Florida, and second wave trve kvlt black metal resides in the forests of Norway... but folk metal has a unique and differentiable sound depending on what cultures produced it. So let's talk about it.

So what is folk metal? Generally, it's described as a fusion of metal with traditional folk music, usually with heavy usage of folk instruments, including but not limited to the flute, violin, or accordion. However, while retaining folk melodies in their music, some bands rely more on standard metal instrumentation. Lyrical content of the genre is most commonly related to nature, mythology, paganism and fantasy. In some ways, this may seem overlapping with Viking metal, and that assumption would be keen. Viking metal and folk metal have long had overlapping sounds, bands, and fanbases. However, I find that folk metal has often (though not always) removed itself thoroughly from a black metal background, allowing for a wider range of experimentation.

Folk metal found its origins in the United Kingdom in the 1990s. It will continue to be a primarily European style for its duration. Bands like Skyclad and Waylander would lead the charge, injecting jaunty folk music into their more traditional heavy metal sound. As the idea began to spread, so did its geographic influence. Bands from many countries would begin to contribute their own forms of folk music in metal contexts: Ireland provides Cruachan and Primordial. Spain comes forward with Mägo de Oz. Norway would provide Isengard, Borknagar, and Storm; all of which are heavily black metal-influenced and cross over into Viking metal. Germany produced Falkenbach, Subway to Sally and Empyrium. Sweden comes forth with more mighty Viking metal-crossovers with Vintersorg and Thyrfing. Before long, each of these countries and more would develop their own distinct sound within the folk metal spectrum.

Recommended '90s folk metal listening:
1. Skyclad - Prince of the Poverty Line (1994)
2. Empyrium - Songs of Moors and Misty Fields (1997)
3. Falkenbach - ...Magni Blandinn Ok Megintiri... (1998)
4. Primordial - A Journey's End (1998)
5. Vintersorg - Ödemarkens Son (1999)

Waylander, Cruachan, and Mägo de Oz in particular would lead a specific subgenre of folk metal that would take off a bit more than other regional variants: Celtic metal. The origins of the genre lie Celtic folk music being injected into things like Celtic rock or Celtic punk. Celtic metal is localized on regions with Celtic roots like the British Islands, France, Spain, Switzerland and Germany, but in the last years the genre has expanded worldwide. Other famous bands include Eluveitie, Suidakra, and Tuatha de Danann.

Recommended Celtic metal listening:
1. Cruachan - Tuatha na Gael (1995)
2. Waylander - Reawakening Pride Once Lost (1998)
3. Mägo de Oz - Finisterra (2000)
4. Eluveitie - Spirit (2006)
5. Suidakra - Crógacht (2009)

In the mid-1990s, another distinct style of folk metal arrived: Medieval folk metal. As the name would imply, Medieval metal takes most of its traditional elements from Medieval folk music. It arrived as an offshoot of the German Neo-Medieval movement of the 1990s, alongside its tamer but oft-crossed over genre Medieval rock. Led by bands such as Subway to Sally and In Extremo, Medieval metal quickly gained an ardent but niche following. Most folk instrumentation is relatively period-accurate, with heavy emphasis on things such as the shawm or hurdy-gurdy. Bands following the initial wave include Schandmaul, Ignis Fatuu, Saltatio Mortis, Folkstone, and Obsequiae, among others.

Recommended Medieval folk metal listening:
1. Subway to Sally - Bannkreis (1997)
2. In Extremo - Verehrt und angespien (1998)
3. Saltatio Mortis - Aus der Asche (2007)
4. Ignis Fatuu - Es werde Licht (2009)
5. Obsequiae - Suspended in the Brume of Eos (2011)

Folk metal flourished in the 2000s. As word got around of a new method of expression musical and cultural tradition through the modern vessel of metal music, more and more regional variants began to pop up. Some bands continued to meld the genre with black metal and Viking metal, leading to the massive success of some of the genre's biggest bands: Finland's Moonsorrow, the United States' Agalloch, and Ukraine's Nokturnal Mortum, just to name a few. Others would take a much more symphonic, epic approach to the sound, like Germany's Equilibrium, and Finland's Ensiferum and Turisas. Others still would take a lighter path, making fun and bouncy music sometimes influenced by traditional folk styles like humppa and joik, such as Finland's Korpiklaani and Finntroll. Some bands stuck to a more metal ideal and fused with power metal like Elvenking and Týr, or maybe progressive metal like Wuthering Heights and Orphaned Land.

Recommended '00s folk metal listening:
1. Ensiferum - Ensiferum (2001)
2. Korpiklaani - Spirit of the Forest (2003)
3. Finntroll - Nattfödd (2004)
4. Moonsorrow - Verisäkeet (2005)
5. Turisas - The Varangian Way (2007)

In the 2010s, folk metal was primarily led by the bands established in the prior decades. Moonsorrow, Primordial, Falkenbach, Orphaned Land, Nokturnal Mortum, Elvenking, and many more all continued to release incredible music. Among the new blood were bands such as progressive metal fusion bands like Wilderun and Lör, atmospheric black metal legends Negură Bunget, previously-mentioned Medieval metallers Obsequiae, and other names that rose to prominence such as Arkona, Dalriada, Tengger Cavalry, Triddana, Falconer, Myrath, Aiumeen Basoa, and the wonderful melodic death metal band Æther Realm.

Recommended '10s folk metal listening:
1. Negură Bunget - Vîrstele pămîntului (2010)
2. Moonsorrow - Varjoina kuljemme kuolleiden maassa (2011)
3. Primordial - Where Greater Men Have Fallen (2014)
4. Wilderun - Sleep at the Edge of the Earth (2015)
5. Lör - In Forgotten Sleep (2017)

In summary, folk metal remains one of metal's most varied and most acquired tastes. On paper, it doesn't seem as though traditional folk music would have much of a place in such a genre like metal, but upon further inspection, one comes to realize that it embodies everything that metal stands for: being true to your roots, expression of individualism, and the creation of a culture. Metal in itself is a culture. Folk metal simply introduces one culture to another.

Drone Metal

Drone metal is a pinnacle of acquired taste. Characterized by fuzzy chords being held out for full minutes, laden with feedback and reverb, sometimes at paces too slow to warrant percussive instruments... drone metal is not for everybody. Behind drone metal's visage of being a seemingly impenetrable niche of near-music, however, lies a booming counterculture stuck somewhere between doom metal, ambient, and post-rock. So let's check it out.

Drone metal, as its name would imply, takes its notes from drone music. Drone is a subgenre of experimental music focusing on long, sustained tones and the repetition of singular notes. Many types of classical and regional music make usage of a single continuous drone as a backbone for melody and rhythm, but drone as a genre focuses on the drone alone, creating a hypnotic, dreamlike atmosphere. Also influential on the genre's foundations are ambient and noise. Ambient music places its focus on sound over structure, with both conventional and unconventional methods of creating minimalist, moody soundscapes. Dark ambient is particularly influential on drone metal. Noise music, on the other hand, is exactly what it would sound like: experimental music that strays from all conventions of what counts as "music," preferring to assemble sounds in a thick, harsh wall. Combining these three experimental styles with doom metal birthed the microcosm that is drone metal.

In the early 1990s, a band called Earth arrived onto the scene with a few demos that would shape the drone metal scene at large. The sludge metal band Melvins would soon create a masterwork of the whole genre, their 1992 record Lysol. Alongside these two, other bands would have similar ideas: Naked City, Black Mayonnaise, Circle, Boris, Thrones, and Corrupted would all contribute to the growing drone metal sound over the course of the decade. Lo-fi compilations such as The Way of Nihilism were made early on in the style's development too, mirroring the underground boom of the noise rock and No Wave movements of the late 1970s. Though, from a metal perspective, drone metal was drawing primarily from doom metal, the genre would combine with a plethora of others over the timeline of its existence, most notably crossovers within sludge metal, post-metal, black metal, and avant-garde metal (to which drone metal owes a lot of its fundamental ideas). 

Recommended '90s drone metal listening:

1. Melvins - Lysol (1992)

2. Naked City - Leng Tch'e (1992)

3. Earth - Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version (1993)

4. Corrupted - Paso inferior (1997)

5. Boris - Amplifier Worship (1998)

In the 2000s, the lines between drone metal and post-metal were blurred even further, leading to the beginning of a wave of music with many names. Some call it metalgaze or doomgaze, alluding to the washy, reverby subgenre of alternative rock known as shoegaze, while others call it post-doom or simply atmospheric metal. Whatever the name, bands like Jesu, The Angelic Process, Nadja, and Teeth of Lions Rule the Divine all encapsulated this new sound. Drone metal as a whole flourished in its own niche sort of way, with the addition of the genre's biggest claim to fame: a band called Sunn O))). Alongside them were other more "traditional" drone metal bands such as Black Boned Angel and Khanate. Bands like Boris and Corrupted continue strong into the decade, where others like Earth and Melvins would go on to pursue a multitude of other genres (post-rock and stoner metal, respectively).

Recommended '00s drone metal listening:

1. Boris - Boris at Last: Feedbacker (2003)

2. Jesu - Jesu (2004)

3. Nadja - Touched (2007)

4. The Angelic Process - Weighing Souls With Sand (2007)

5. Sunn O))) - Monoliths & Dimensions (2009)

The 2010s brought a renaissance of heavy drone metal into the fray, with sludgy, funeral doom metal-influenced bands such as Bismuth, Conan, Drowning Horse, Bongripper, and Hell rearing their unforgiving brand onto the populace. Other genre combinations began to flourish, such as the introduction of post-industrial music into the drone metal formula. Bands such as Author & Punisher, The Body, and Khost would introduce elements of death industrial and power electronics, creating an even bleaker, colder atmosphere. Other bands stuck to the ambient/post-rock side of things such as Wolvserpent, Wrekmeister Harmonies, and Big Brave. Others still would push the boundaries even further, such as the unlikely blend of drone metal and psychedelic rock seen in the releases of Bong.

Recommended '10s drone metal listening:

1. Bong - Mana-Yood-Sushai (2012)

2. Hell - Hell III (2012)

3. The Body - I Shall Die Here (2014)

4. Bismuth - The Slow Dying of the Great Barrier Reef (2018)

5. Big Brave - A Gaze Among Them (2019)

As a whole, drone metal remains a small but consistent slice of the metal pie. As specific of a niche as it serves to fill, drone metal does so with the utmost ability to push its own limits, just as the experimental music it takes from as influences. Drone metal, despite being all about long, sustained notes (not unlikely to last for hours on end!), will never get stale as long as there are musicians willing to look beyond the narrow, confining conventions of "music."

Stoner Metal

Of all the metal subgenres that Black Sabbath created, stoner metal often pales in comparison to its predecessors heavy metal and doom metal. But in 1971, with the release of Sabbath's masterpiece Master of Reality, one song shaped an entire genre: "Sweet Leaf." The fuzzy, blues-injected riffage, the plodding, midtempo feel, and of course the subject of recreational marijuana usage all led down a singular path: the path to stoner metal.

So what constitutes as stoner metal? Is it just metal music that centers itself around pot? Not exactly, it has a very distinct sound and style to it, just as much as any other subgenre I've covered here before. It takes the slow doom metal blueprint and lines it with influences from blues rock, psychedelic rock, and eventually (naturally) stoner rock, an offshoot of hard rock mentioned in my very first post. Stoner metal aims to bring the blues back into the metal formula. The genre is very closely linked to sludge metal, sometimes to the point of the genre terms being used interchangeably, but stoner metal has a much more carefree, less aggressive air to it that sets it apart fairly distinctly.

Though "Sweet Leaf" was released all the way back in 1971, stoner metal as a whole didn't begin to take form until the early 1990s. Early stoner rock bands like Monster Magnet and Fu Manchu didn't precede the metal counterpart by much, and often would blur the lines between rock and metal from song to song. The early '90s saw the arrival of bands that would remain hugely prevalent forces throughout the genre's entire existence, solidifying themselves as forerunners and trailblazers, such as Sleep, Corrosion of Conformity, Down, Melvins, Kyuss, Earth, Blood Farmers, Motorpsycho, and Clutch. Also prevalent were traditional doom metal bands that took more and more psychedelic influence such as Trouble, Saint Vitus, and Cathedral. The later '90s brought more bands to the fray such as Spiritual Beggars, Acrimony, Orange Goblin, Electric Wizard, Spirit Caravan, Goatsnake, the Atomic Bitchwax, and Sons of Otis.

Recommended '90s stoner metal listening:
1. Sleep - Holy Mountain (1992)
2. Kyuss - Welcome to Sky Valley (1994)
3. Melvins - Stoner Witch (1994)
4. Down - NOLA (1995)
5. Electric Wizard - Come My Fanatics... (1997)

In the 2000s, stoner metal continued strong with both already-established bands just as much as newcomers. Stoner juggernauts like Sleep and Electric Wizard both released their magnum opuses (Dopesmoker and Dopethone, respectively) in the first few years of the decade. The 2000s saw the sludge-stoner crossover take full effect, with the arrival of bands like High on Fire, Kylesa, Ufomammut, Big Business, and Boris (being a particularly interesting crossover of drone metal and noise rock as well). Other bands still such as Solace, Om, YOB, The Hidden Hand, Church of Misery, and The Sword continued the style teetering on the edge of one thing or another, whether between stoner and doom metal, or between stoner rock and metal.

Recommended '00s stoner metal listening:
1. Electric Wizard - Dopethrone (2000)
2. Sleep - Dopesmoker (2003)
3. Boris - Pink (2005)
4. High on Fire - Death is This Communion (2007)
5. Kylesa - Static Tensions (2009)

The 2010s saw a continuation of the 2000s, where bands both new and old would continue strong doing the tried and tested stoner metal formula. High on Fire holds the reigns in many ways, leading the charge of the new wave of stoner bands. Sleep makes a phenomenal comeback after 15 years of silence with 2018's The Sciences. A new wave of progressive metal-tinged stoner bands arrive, such as Mastodon and Baroness, who have both moved away from their previous sludge metal sounds. New bands like Elder, Stoned Jesus, Mutoid Man, Alunah, Spaceslug, Khemmis, and Turbowolf all release respectable additions to the genre's repertoire, alongside other reigning giants from decades prior like The Sword, Church of Misery, Electric Wizard, Kylesa, and Solace. Even notorious independent garage rock/psychedelic rock band King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard tried their hand at the stoner metal sound (incredibly, if I may add) with their 2019 record Infest the Rats' Nest.

Recommended '10s stoner metal listening:
1. The Sword - Warp Riders (2010)
2. Elder - Dead Roots Stirring (2011)
3. High on Fire - De vermis mysteriis (2012)
4. Sleep - The Sciences (2018)
5. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Infest the Rats' Nest (2019)

It's genres like this that aim to show how far a simple idea can go. Of course the binding thread between these bands is a mutual love for marijuana and doom metal, but such a simple yet specific concept should have, for all intents and purposes, fallen flat on its face within five years of surfacing. But thanks to the creativity, ingenuity, and passion that bands continue to breathe into the genre's style, stoner metal prevails as strongly as ever.

Metalcore

Metalcore is an incredibly misunderstood genre term, and goes forever unappreciated by many "true metal" elitists due to its connotation to be whiny, "too poppy," or whatever else people use to describe the scene that appeared in the genre in the mid- to late-2000s. What I aim to do here is to shed some light on the origins and history of the genre, and hopefully draw in new fans from both in and outside of the metal community.

Metalcore, or "metallic hardcore" as some will hear it described, is exactly what the namesake would suggest: a combination of metal music and hardcore punk. If you're a repeated reader of these genre timelines, then you'll know that this is not the first time this combination has been attempted (see: thrash metal and grindcore), but what differentiates metalcore from these prior styles really lies in one fundamental: the breakdown. Metalcore focuses heavily on the hardcore side of things, injecting metal's technicality and/or tone into what by all accounts would simply be an energetic hardcore band. The breakdown is a point in a track, usually towards the middle, where the tempo slows and riffs emerge that are meant to initiate moshing as a form of crowd participation. Moshing can be found in nearly every metal genre, but metalcore aims to make it a staple.

Metalcore saw its first wave in the early 1990s. Hardcore punk bands like Integrity, Rorschach, Earth Crisis, Starkweather, Merauder, Converge, and Deadguy were among the first to produce the metalcore sound. The death metal and thrash metal influence shows clearly in a lot of these bands, despite the framework of their material being relatively textbook hardcore. Anywhere from Black Sabbath to Joy Division to Celtic Frost could have some sort of contributing factor to the metalcore ideal. Some of these bands, like Merauder, even took influence from early groove metal and the booming New York hardcore scene. As the 1990s went on, more and more bands began to gain traction, including Hatebreed, Shai Hulud, Catharsis, Poison the Well, Acme, Cave In, and Zao. Bands like this, with a massive influx of unified would, would be the ones to carve the niche that defines and codifies metalcore as it is today.

Recommended '90s metalcore listening:
1. Integrity - Those Who Fear Tomorrow (1991)
2. Earth Crisis - Destroy the Machines (1995)
3. Hatebreed - Satisfaction is the Death of Desire (1997)
4. Zao - Where Blood and Fire Bring Rest (1998)
5. Poison the Well - The Opposite of December (1999)

A subgenre development nearly as old as the genre itself but taking a much more chaotic track is called mathcore. What mathcore does as a style is takes the already raw, aggressive and spastic metalcore and injects it with dissonant, angular riffing, unconventional and constantly shifting time signatures, and an unparalleled sense of compositional incomprehensibility. Made popular by bands such as Deadguy, Botch, Converge, and of course the ever-popular The Dillinger Escape Plan, the 1990s saw incredible artistic merit in the subgenre. Linked closely to grindcore, the 2000s saw bands such as Ion Dissonance, Gaza, Daughters, The Number Twelve Looks Like You, and Car Bomb, among others. The style is still prevalent and boundary-pushing today.

Recommended mathcore listening:
1. Deadguy - Fixation on a Coworker (1995)
2. The Dillinger Escape Plan - Calculating Infinity (1999)
3. Botch - We Are the Romans (1999)
4. Converge - Jane Doe (2001)
5. Gaza - I Don't Care Where I Go When I Die (2006)

Metalcore thrived in the 2000s, and its style began to take a drastic shift away from what had previously existed. Obviously, metallic hardcore bands continued strong: Converge, Shai Hulud, Poison the Well, Integrity, and Hatebreed all continued strong well into the decade. New metallic hardcore bands would pop up left and right, with releases from bands like Cursed, Every Time I Die, Skycamefalling, Hopesfall, Norma Jean, Terror, Nostromo, and Kickback. However, some metalcore bands would often inject more and more clean-sung, melodic death metal-inspired accentuations to the genre, resulting indirectly in the creation of melodic metalcore (which I will give its own entry in the future). Among these bands were Misery Signals, 7 Angels 7 Plagues, August Burns Red, Underoath, and Undying. This would eventually lead to genre speciation, with bands like Killswitch Engage, Shadows Fall, and All That Remains holding the helm of melodic metalcore, an evolutionary offshoot of metallic hardcore, and often receiving the brunt of criticisms from "true metal" communities. Progressive metalcore began to show up as well, taking technical and avant-garde aspects of progressive metal and breathing new life into the very formula that metalcore had ridden on for a decade now. Bands like SikTh, Between the Buried and Me, Burst, and (arguably) early-career Mastodon all contributed to this sound distinct but reminiscent of mathcore.

Recommended '00s metalcore listening:
1. 7 Angels 7 Plagues - Jhazmyne's Lullaby (2001)
2. Norma Jean - Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child (2002)
3. Between the Buried and Me - Colors (2007)
4. Misery Signals - Controller (2008)
5. Converge - Axe to Fall (2009)

Let's backtrack a bit. Also in the 1990s arose a subgenre that, in my personal opinion, has done nothing but improve with time: deathcore. Though it didn't gain widespread attention or traction until the early and mid-2000s (explaining its placement in the timeline), deathcore aimed to combine the existing metalcore sound with the growled vocals and blast beats of death metal. The first handful of bands to use this sound, such as Damaged, Day of Suffering, Deformity, and Abnegation, often took elements of deathgrind as well, making the sound far more inaccessible than standard metalcore. As the style began to solidify into more of its now-recognizable sound though, bands like Animosity, The Red Chord, Despised Icon, and Job for a Cowboy aided it in eventually sweeping the world of MySpace. Big bands appeared in the late-2000s, among them Whitechapel, All Shall Perish, Chelsea Grin, Suicide Silence, Carnifex, Oceano, Impending Doom, After the Burial, and Winds of Plague. The subgenre was often held to a very low standard, as the gimmicks of the genre eventually became pitfalls, and the whole movement seemed to be very follow-the-leader. Since this wave of popularity though, there have been bands like Fit for an Autopsy, Thy Art is Murder, and Shadow of Intent that continue to breathe new and amazing life into the deathcore world. Also there's a bunch of "fake slam death metal" bands out there like Within Destruction that have created their own microcosm in the style.

Recommended deathcore listening:
1. Deformity - Murder Within Sin (1999)
2. The Red Chord - Fused Together in Revolving Doors (2002)
3. Whitechapel - This is Exile (2008)
4. Thy Art is Murder - Hate (2012)
5. Shadow of Intent - Melancholy (2019)

2010s metalcore still manages to take the forefront of both metal and punk scenes. Converge, Every Time I Die, and The Dillinger Escape Plan are still as strong as ever, if not stronger. Bands from the metallic hardcore style are coming back in a huge way, in what I've sometimes seen labeled as the "Entombedcore" movement; referencing the muddy, sludgy tone of the legendary Swedish death metal band Entombed. Bands like Code Orange, Knocked Loose, Jesus Piece, Vein, and early Oathbreaker all contributed greatly to the style's success. Atmospheric metalcore has begun to take a huge hold on the scene as well, with bands like Architects and Silent Planet carving a niche in the already booming progressive metalcore/djent scene (fronted by bands like Erra, Currents, and Northlane). Huge strides are being made with melodic metalcore-infused metalcore, further blurring the lines between the two, with bands such as Fit for a King, Oh Sleeper, Counterparts (also melodic hardcore, a genre of hardcore punk often wrongly-attributed to more traditional-sounding metalcore bands), and While She Sleeps. This isn't to say that classic metallic hardcore bands aren't as prevalent though, as new life is breathed into the genre every day with releases from bands like All Pigs Must Die, Rise of the Northstar, Incendiary, Ithaca, and Employed to Serve, among others. Also, RIP The Chariot, amirite?

Recommended '10s metalcore listening:
1. The Chariot - Long Live (2010)
2. Converge - All We Love We Leave Behind (2012)
3. Erra - Augment (2013)
4. Architects - Lost Forever // Lost Together (2014)
5. Every Time I Die - Low Teens (2016)

Overall, metalcore is one of my personal favorite genres of metal. It's incredibly diverse; so many facets can be discovered and explored because of how flexible the idea of 'metal+hardcore' can be. Converge, Misery Signals, and Knocked Loose all sound so different from each other, but all exist under the same idea. That's the brilliance of a simple concept: the pieces fit together like it was meant to be. I trust that with these new, refreshing bands appearing so frequently, and the genre's rich history, metalcore will remain a strong and prevalent force in metal for years to come.

Note: Sorry for not getting an entry out last week, this whole self-quarantine thing has taken quite a toll on my work ethic, admittedly. It's not going to be very fun, but with so much extra time it's allowed me to not only discover more music, but even take more time to write some of my own. Just remember to stay safe, stay healthy, and wash your hands. Thank you for reading!

Groove Metal

Groove metal, sometimes referred to as post-thrash metal, is an oft-overlooked subgenre of metal that developed in the late 1980s. Taking the unrelentingly fast, aggressive, hardcore punk-tinged formula of thrash metal and focusing it more on groovy syncopation and heaviness rather than outright speed, groove metal sits firmly as an underlying '90s offshoot of metal that never really skyrocketed to stardom like its contemporaries in nu metal, but remains an interesting and vital chunk of metal history.

Though Brazil's Sepultura undoubtedly set the stage that groove metal would eventually inherit, pretty much the only bands in the 1980s playing legitimately groove metal were Biohazard and the early works of White Zombie. Biohazard took elements of crossover thrash and pushed into odd alternative metal territory, creating a fairly sturdy prototype of the groove metal sound. White Zombie on the other hand fused industrial metal with more sludgy, midtempo riffage, something that would become a trademark of the genre as a whole. The 1990s saw an influx of new breath into the style, and no other band represented this new scene quite as well and as wholeheartedly as Pantera.

Pantera was in a league of its own. Having started in the 1980s as an odd blend of glam metal and speed metal, the turn of the decade saw the band shifting so drastically in tone and style, that they were hardly recognizable as the same entity. Part of what made this band so iconic and unique was the dual power of the Abbott brothers, whose stage names were Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul. Pantera released five albums in its career, and each defined a particular era in the groove metal scene, and solidified Pantera's role as the codifiers of the genre. Their 1990 debut, Cowboys from Hell, was particularly influential. Borrowing riffs that wouldn't seem out of place on a Metallica record but also interjecting aspects of Southern rock and even hardcore breakdowns... groove metal was here to stay. In 1992, the sophomore record Vulgar Display of Power did even more to make Pantera's mark not just on groove metal, but on metal music as a whole. To this day, Pantera is acclaimed as one of the greatest metal bands of all time.

Aside from Pantera, the 1990s brought in plenty of new interesting bands to the groove metal world. Among these were thrash metal and crossover veterans that decided to take a detour through this new scene, such as Sepultura, Anthrax, Exhorder, Coroner, Overkill, and Prong, as well as newer bands like Machine Head and Grip Inc. fusing the styles. There was also considerable overlap with alternative metal, significantly funk metal, with bands like Infectious Grooves and 24-7 Spyz crossing into groove metal territory. Straight groove metal came in the form of bands such as 2 Ton Predator, Pissing Razors, and Dearly Beheaded. Metalcore fusion bands also arrived pretty heavily on the scene, such as Merauder, Vision of Disorder, and Earth Crisis.

Recommended '90s groove metal listening:
1. Pantera - Vulgar Display of Power (1992)
2. Sepultura - Chaos A.D. (1993)
3. Prong - Cleansing (1994)
4. Machine Head - Burn My Eyes (1994)
5. White Zombie - Astro-Creep: 2000 (1995)

In the 2000s, groove metal was very closely tied to metalcore. The leading bands in the scene were actually often mistaken for metalcore bands, or at the very least would tour alongside them frequently, often blurring the lines between the two styles and leading to the umbrella term "New Wave of American Heavy Metal," often shortened to NWOAHM (paying homage to the NWOBHM of the 1980s). Bands like Lamb of God, DevilDriver, Chimaira, Five Finger Death Punch, Black Label Society, and Soulfly would appear in this era, many of which have become huge names in the overall metal scene. Machine Head in particular would release some of the genre's greatest works in this decade as well, namely 2007's The Blackening. Many underrated bands showed up as well, such as Trepalium (combining groove metal with technical death metal), Biomechanical, Byzantine, Mnemic, and Raging Speedhorn. Dimebag Darrell also tragically passed away in this time, while playing for the band Damageplan after Pantera's disbanding.

Recommended '00s groove metal listening:
1. Black Label Society - 1919 Eternal (2002)
2. Lamb of God - Ashes of the Wake (2004)
3. DevilDriver - The Fury of Our Maker's Hand (2005)
4. Soulfly - Dark Ages (2005)
5. Machine Head - The Blackening (2007)

In the 2010s, groove metal admittedly waned a bit in popularity. The bigger bands in the scene would handle this change in different ways: Lamb of God continued strong, Five Finger Death Punch moved into a more commercially-accessible alternative metal sound, and Machine Head would... well, release some really cool albums and then nearly fall off the face of the earth with the release of the near-universally hated Catharsis. Unto the Locust was pretty cool though, right? Anyway, the rest of the newcoming groove metal bands in the 2010s often combined groove metal with other metal styles, such as Dyscarnate (groovy death metal?), Rise of the Northstar and Kublai Khan (tough guy beatdown hardcore/metalcore + groove metal), Gojira (progressive metal), Minushuman and System Divide (melodic death metal), Body Count (rap metal), and The Offering (power metal), to name a few.

Recommended '10s groove metal listening:
1. Machine Head - Unto the Locust (2011)
2. Lamb of God - VII: Sturm und Drang (2015)
3. Gojira - Magma (2016)
4. Dyscarnate - With All Their Might (2017)
5. Kublai Khan - Nomad (2017)

Groove metal as a whole has often fallen by the wayside in light of other, more popular genres of metal. Despite this, the bands that do get big (Pantera, Lamb of God, Five Finger Death Punch) often lead new metal listeners into more and more great music. This stations groove metal at a very integral part of the metal listener's journey: the gateway into heavier, darker, and more obscure music. And it serves this job well. Here's to groove metal always shifting, and always introducing.

Note: Hey all! I'm currently on Spring break. I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy out there given the current circumstances. Be sure to be conscious and aware; all it really takes is washing your hands. Thanks so much for reading, and stay tuned for next week!

Viking Metal

Gonna knock this one out right off the bat: Amon Amarth is not Viking metal. I still love them, but that's not what this entry is about.

Viking metal is a style of metal that originated at the very beginning of the 1990s, and finds its stylistic origins in black metal and Nordic folk music. Being an abrasive yet atmospheric offshoot of the tremolo-picked, occult-obsessed world of black metal does not mean that it falls into the same pitfalls however, as Viking metal shifts its thematic focus to, you guessed it, Vikings and folklore. A direct precursor to folk metal (which we will discuss later), Viking metal was a logical progression even from early hard rock and heavy metal, with Nordic and Pagan themes being found anywhere from Led Zeppelin to Yngwie Malmsteen. But why does metal have such a fascination with Nordic folklore, and why is simply singing about the conquest of Vikings (as in the case of Amon Amarth) not enough to justify the genre tag?

It is generally agreed upon that the initial scene of Viking metal bands owe their prominence to Bathory. Already a driving force in the first wave of black metal, Bathory (and its iconic frontman Quorthon) took a turn for the Vikings in 1990 with the release of the genre's first true album: Hammerheart. Along with other bands at the time such as Pagan Rites, Twin Obscenity, Hades, and Mithotyn, Viking metal took its first steps. It wasn't until the middle of the decade, however, that the genre began to flourish. With the oncoming arrival of names such as Storm, Falkenbach, Vintersorg, Thyrfing, Einherjer, Graveland, Borknagar, and the mighty Enslaved, Viking metal was quickly catching on, and linking heavily to the subsequent folk metal movement in the mid- to late-'90s.

Recommended '90s Viking metal listening:
1. Bathory - Hammerheart (1990)
2. Enslaved - Frost (1994)
3. Borknagar - The Olden Domain (1997)
4. Falkenbach - Magni Blandinn Ok Megintiri... (1998)
5. Vintersorg - Till fjälls (1998)

Into the 2000s, Viking metal continued strong, losing (in my opinion) none of the momentum it had created. One of the most major players in the genre's timeline, Moonsorrow, released phenomenal records throughout the decade. The ties with folk metal became closer and closer, until to most casual fans the genres became inseparable. Albums from Ensiferum, Falkenbach, Equilibrium, Turisas, Týr, and Månegarm all combine the styles seamlessly and naturally, as the thematic elements of folk music and folklore are intended hand in hand. The style became much more grand and epic in its instrumentation and presentation, something that folk metal had inspired. Despite this overtake and overlap, Viking metal remained a prominent force of its own, separate from folk metal and truer to its black metal roots with bands such as Galar, Forefather, Thyrfing, and Sorgsvart keeping the flame alive.

Recommended '00s Viking metal listening:
1. Ensiferum - Ensiferum (2001)
2. Moonsorrow - Kivenkantaja (2003)
3. Månegarm - Vredens tid (2005)
4. Falkenbach - Heralding: The Fireblade (2005)
5. Equilibrium - Sagas (2008)

As we entered the 2010s, Viking metal saw a mixture of mostly older bands continuing to reign strong, with every once in a while a new band arriving and pulling something great and unexpected out of their pockets. Falkenbach, Finsterforst, and Vintersorg all continued to write phenomenally, even after their contemporaries either shied away from the genre entirely (ie, Enslaved) or had long been broken up (ie, Bathory). Bands rearing their heads for the first time either in the later portion of the 2000s or completely in the new decade included King of Asgard, Nothgard, Ereb Altor, Draugnim, Voluspaa, and Svartsot, among others.

Recommended '10s Viking metal listening:
1. Ereb Altor - The End (2010)
2. King of Asgard - Fi'mbulvintr (2010)
3. Nothgard - Warhorns of Midgard (2011)
4. Finsterforst - Rastlos (2012)
5. Falkenbach - Asa (2013)

So why the fascination with such old-fashioned themes? Is it for the sake of metal guys feeling cool? Doubtful, though it certainly is cool in my personal opinion. Is it the lust for aggression, or for feeling the honor that a battle brings? Is it the pride for the rich European heritage from which most of these key figures hail? Or is it the surprisingly consistent overlap between metal fans and history buffs? It could be any combination of these things, but one thing is for certain: Viking metal has cranked out some of the most fantastic metal records of the last three decades, and the genre shows no signs of slowing.

Note: Hey y'all! Sorry it's a bit of a shorter entry today. I know I've been behind on things, it's time for midterms here at my university, so free time has been a little tight. In other news, I'm going to see the great Devin Townsend live with his all-new all-star Empath band! I hope you've enjoyed keeping up with these entries, and I'll do my darnedest to have a new one out on the regular weekly schedule again. Thanks!

Gothic Metal

With so much of underground and alternative music in the 1990s being so drenched in angst and disenchantment with everyday life, it only makes sense that metal would be a main player in this collective loathing somnambulation. "Gothic" is a term that has existed to mean many things over the course of centuries. Originating as an ethnonym for a group of East Germanic tribes in the third century AD, 'goth' has come to represent anything from architecture to literature to a subculture of middle schoolers. As so many bands and genres did before it, gothic metal relies heavily on the proto-doom metal of Black Sabbath with its plodding tempos and harrowing subject matter. Gothic metal combines this with gothic rock, which was an offshoot of post-punk that rose to prominence in the mid- to late-1980s with bands such as The Cure, Bauhaus, and Siouxsie and the Banshees. Combining romantic and dreamy content of the goth rock bands with the ever-depressive doom metal sound and aesthetic, early gothic metal bands took their first steps.

Gothic metal found itself culminating in northern England with the "Peaceville Three" credited for creating death doom metal: Paradise Lost, Anathema and My Dying Bride. All of these bands showed significant input to the developing gothic metal genre, with their romantic, poetic lyricism and direct references to many gothic art forms prior to the metal offshoot. Not all bands were rooted in death metal though, as bands like Type O Negative, Tiamat, and Saviour Machine reared their heads towards the middle of the decade, drawing influence anywhere from progressive metal to heavy metal to alternative metal and even ethereal wave. Gothic black metal also saw a potential future with bands like Moonspell also arriving onto the scene.

Towards the end of the '90s, gothic metal began to solidify itself into something different than from what it had initially been raised. Bands like the Gathering, the Sins of Thy Beloved, Tristania, Lacrimosa, and many others began to incorporate what is now known as the "Beauty and the Beast" vocal style, which often showcases an operatic female lead vocalist juxtaposed against a more gruff male backing vocalist. This became a trademark aspect of gothic and symphonic metal to the point of where it's the genre's main stereotype.

Recommended '90s gothic metal listening:
1. Type O Negative - Bloody Kisses (1993)
2. Tiamat - Wildhoney (1994)
3. Moonspell - Wolfheart (1995)
4. Paradise Lost - Draconian Times (1995)
5. The Gathering - Mandylion (1995)

There were points in the 2000s where gothic metal's symphonic, operatic side became more and more angled towards the mainstream, taking in more and more influence from alternative metal until bands like Within Temptation, Lacuna Coil, and even Evanescence were being associated with the genre, despite the former two bands drifting away from gothic metal fairly early in their careers, and the latter having nearly nothing to do with the genre aside from some aspects of imagery. The doom metal-oriented sound, however, took flight in a most spectacular of ways. New releases from bands like My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost and Moonspell continued to be wonderful, as well as bands such as Draconian, Virgin Black, Novembre, and Sentenced making their names heard. That's not to say that the symphonic metal style was failing in terms of artistic value however, as bands like Sirenia and After Forever released landmark albums in the genre in this time frame as well.

Recommended '00s gothic metal listening:
1. My Dying Bride - The Dreadful Hours (2001)
2. Sentenced - The Cold White Light (2002)
3. Sirenia - At Sixes and Sevens (2002)
4. Draconian - Arcane Rain Fell (2005)
5. Virgin Black - Requiem: Mezzo Forte (2007)

In the 2010s, gothic metal mostly remained in the hands of the classics; Paradise Lost, Moonspell, Draconian, Swallow the Sun, and Novembre held the genre up with their dreary cloaks opened to the night. Newcomers like Tribulation (which initially began as an experimental death metal group), Woods of Ypres, Idle Hands, Lethian Dreams, Pantheist, the Foreshadowing, Before the Dawn (an interesting case combining gothic metal with melodic death metal), Ava Inferi, and the Vision Bleak would all submit major contributions to the genre's history in the 2010s too, however.

Recommended '10s gothic metal listening:
1. Woods of Ypres - Woods 5: Grey Skies & Electric Light (2012)
2. Tribulation - The Children of the Night (2015)
3. Paradise Lost - The Plague Within (2015)
4. Swallow the Sun - Songs from the North I, II & III (2015)
5. Idle Hands - Mana (2019)

Though album releases from gothic metal bands rarely make waves in the way that more prominent genres may, it is nevertheless essential to look to gothic metal as a guiding light to underrated and underappreciated masterpieces. I once heard this genre referred to as "doom metal for theater kids," and in some ways that's a fairly accurate description. Always full of flair and oft-rivaling power metal in grandiosity, gothic metal remains a powerful and inspirational niche in the metal family tree.

Note: Hey guys! Sorry for not posting an entry last week, I was away for the weekend. I saw Periphery (with Plini and Arch Echo) on Friday and Thrice (with mewithoutYou, Drug Church and Holy Fawn) on Saturday. Both shows were phenomenal and every band gave their all. Tomorrow I'll also be going up to the Apollo Theater in New York City to see the one and only Opeth (with support from Graveyard), so I'm super stoked on that. Thanks for reading!

Avant-Garde Metal

In honor of the newly-reunited Mr. Bungle playing their first shows in 20 years, I felt it was only necessary to pay homage to one of my personal favorite subgenres of metal music: avant-garde metal. Originating from the French word for 'vanguard,' what makes avant-garde metal (and experimental music in general) is how undefinable it can be. Hell, the very terminology for the genre implies less of a unified sound, but rather just 'these bands don't go in any other category. Lump all the weirdos together.' In doing so, metal's wackiest, zaniest, and most experimental genre came to be.

Some styles of music are considered experimental or avant-garde when they first rear their heads in the scene, but will eventually become more standardized and commonplace as the trend catches on, thus rendering their application of the avant-garde term obsolete. This happens a lot, particularly in such a forward-thinking genre as metal, so the degree to which something I discuss here is considered 'avant-garde' may be variable. Take that into consideration when reading.

Avant-garde metal took its first steps in the late 1980s with a trifecta of bands who were doing things differently: Warning, Celtic Frost, and Old (then-stylized as O.L.D.). Old was an odd bunch of folks playing industrial metal-tinged grindcore with a healthy dash of experimental rock. Celtic Frost was a legendary thrash metal band that decided to take a turn for the weirder with their 1987 opus Into the Pandemonium. Warning was arguably the first band to be classified as avant-garde metal, with a very odd blend of progressive electronic music and doom metal. Also in the 1980s was the creation of the legendary Mr. Bungle. Though the collective only released a handful of demos and EPs that were in much more of a conventional thrash metal/death metal style, Mr. Bungle would soon become one of the most prominent figures in the entire genre.

As humanity entered the 1990s, avant-garde metal really got the opportunity to spread its wings. Collaborations of unconventional sounds, structures, and instrumentation began to pop up in seemingly every facet of the metal community in spurts of vanguard weirdness. Black metal and symphonic metal bands like Ved Buens Ende, Arcturus, Sigh, and Graal began to flourish. Avant-garde death metal such as Gorguts, Pan.Thy.Monium, and Pestilence began to arrive based out of more boundary-pushing offshoots of technical death metal. Bands like Naked City and PainKiller delved into dark ambient and avant-garde jazz territory in their works. Even stranger still was the introduction of funk rock and alternative metal into the fray, most notably showcased on Mr. Bungle's self-titled debut record.

Most prominent within the scene was the overlap with progressive metal. Progressive metal, being a genre focused similarly around pushing the envelope and watching it bend, tends to overlap with a lot of avant-garde metal. However, I find that the key distinguishing feature between the two can be summed up with 'weirdness.' Progressive metal bands like Dream Theater, Between the Buried and Me, and Opeth all take the metal formula and push it beyond its established limits to create something more forward-focused, as do experimental metal bands. However, say where a progressive metal band would tend to use elements of Western classical music to add textures or layers, an avant-metal band would potentially incorporate purely chamber music-based instrumentals underneath harsh death or doom metal vocals and lyricism. Where progressive music focuses on technicality, musicality, and virtuosity of its players, experimental music relies far more on how far they can take the music in any one direction at a time. Key bands from the '90s that showcased this overlap include maudlin of the Well, In the Woods..., Solefald, and Thought Industry.

Recommended '90s avant-garde metal listening (plus one '80s album):
1. Celtic Frost - Into the Pandemonium (1987)
2. Mr. Bungle - Mr. Bungle (1991)
3. Ved Buens Ende - Written in Waters (1995)
4. Arcturus - La masquerade infernale (1997)
5. Gorguts - Obscura (1998)

Once the 2000s hit, avant-metal began to really boom. Major players began to take shape, such as the monumental 2001 releases Bath and Leaving Your Body Map from maudlin of the Well, Toby Driver's subsequent act Kayo Dot, noisecore-forerunners Today is the Day, Mike Patton of Mr. Bungle's new project Fantômas, Dir en Grey, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Thy Catafalque, Dog Fashion Disco, Ephel Duath, Diablo Swing Orchestra, Stolen Babies, Unexpect, and phenomenal new works from established acts such as Arcturus, Solefald, and Sigh. New waves of zany, chaotic avant-garde metal known more specifically as 'circus metal' started to take form, which has inadvertently caused many folks nowadays to label any metal with circus sounds, vibes or themes as avant-garde.

Recommended '00s avant-garde metal listening:
1. Fantômas - The Director's Cut (2001)
2. Sigh - Imaginary Sonicscape (2001)
3. maudlin of the Well - Bath / Leaving Your Body Map (2001)
4. Arcturus - The Sham Mirrors (2002)
5. Sleepytime Gorilla Museum - Of Natural History (2004)

In the 2010s, some progressive metal acts began to incorporate more and more avant-garde elements into their sound, as seen primarily in some works by the great Devin Townsend. Other fusions between the two were carried by the Norwegian band Shining, Ex Eye, and the usual releases from Thy Catafalque, Dir en Grey, Kayo Dot (which now dabbles mostly in art rock and avant-prog), and Diablo Swing Orchestra. Avant-garde black metal still burns strong, with newcomers to the genre coming out of the atmospheric black metal woodworks like Blut aus Nord, A Forest of Stars, Liturgy, Imperial Triumphant, Hail Spirit Noir (combining avant-black metal with psychedelic rock), Schammasch, and Howls of Ebb. Multi-instrumentalist Igorrr has led a recent surge in breakcore-inspired metal music. Odder still is the relative mainstream success of Zeal & Ardor, a band which combines avant-garde black metal with slave spirituals.

Recommended '10s avant-garde metal listening:
1. Devin Townsend Project - Deconstruction (2011)
2. Thy Catafalque - Rengeteg (2011)
3. Diablo Swing Orchestra - Pandora's Piñata (2012)
4. Blut aus Nord - 777: Cosmosophy (2012)
5. Kayo Dot - Hubardo (2013)

If there were ever to be a metal genre that had an inexhaustible pool of creativity, it would have to be avant-garde metal. Simply by nature, avant-garde metal cannot move forward if it conforms. Individual bands may get snippets of recognition or (in very rare cases) even airplay, but things will never stay stagnant for long, lest the bands be swept into a more grounded genre and lose what made them experimental, artful, and so avant-garde in the first place. A genre term built purely around incomprehensible genre tagging, genre hopping, and genre defying artists... it's pretty much an oxymoron. And a glorious one, at that.

Industrial Metal

Born from the filth that coats the streets of the inner city, the same grime that plagues the backs of our minds when we're left alone for long enough to actually start thinking... exists a genre of music called industrial metal. Highlighting the psychological and sociopolitical turmoils of urban life through isolation and machination, industrial metal creates an oppressive, noisy and futuristic atmosphere. Let's talk about it.

A fusion of metal and post-industrial music, industrial metal adds elements of electronic music and instruments such as synthesizers, samplers and drum machines. Cranking levers, whirring conveyor belts, and the blasts of steam from an engine all could theoretically contribute to the cold, distant futuristic noise of industrial metal. Similarly linked to its sister genre industrial rock, industrial metal is angry and visceral, but not to the point of excluding a wider audience, and as such developed a relatively mainstream following for a fleeting moment in the 1990s with artists like Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson.

What most may not know about the genre is that it first developed in the mid- to late-1980s, and had a much more raw and misanthropic sound even by the more popular wave's standards. The 1980s saw bands like Ministry, Slab! and Godflesh arrive onto the scene, the former two taking the post-punk/industrial rock-based music of Killing Joke and injecting it with a hearty dose of thrash metal and/or alternative metal. Godflesh, on the other hand, was much more rooted in sludge metal and doom metal than its contemporaries, and as a result took a much more avant-garde approach to the industrial metal inception, leading directly to the development of the atmospheric sludge metal genre as well.

Recommended '80s industrial metal listening:

1. Slab! - Descension (1987)

2. Treponem Pal - Treponem Pal (1989)

3. Saw Throat - Inde$troy (1989)

4. Godflesh - Streetcleaner (1989)

5. Ministry - The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste (1989)

It wasn't until the '90s where industrial metal began to come onto its own and reach its peak. Both Godflesh and Ministry continued to put out quality material within the genre, and even Killing Joke took a turn from a rock-based to a much more metal direction in their sound. The genre started to show signs of a stylistic divide, with some bands taking influence from alternative rock, groove metal, synthpop, and other more commercially-viable styles. This resulted in a wave of popular industrial metal bands such as KMFDM, White Zombie, and Marilyn Manson, who alongside industrial rock heavyweights Nine Inch Nails, defined the seedy, leather-clad underbelly of '90s alternative music. On the other hand though, there were more industrial metal artists still looking to fuse the genre with extreme metal. Industrial thrash metal, such as Strapping Young Lad, Prong, Nailbomb and Pitchshifter began to develop. Even more extreme still were the subsequent waves of death metal-tinged industrial metal (characterized by bands such as Fear Factory, Oomph!, and Meathook Seed) and industrial black metal (such as Samael, Dødheimsgard, Aborym, and Thorns).

Recommended '90s industrial metal listening:

1. Ministry - Psalm 69 (1992)

2. Nailbomb - Point Blank (1994)

3. Fear Factory - Demanufacture (1995)

4. Marilyn Manson - Antichrist Superstar (1996)

5. Strapping Young Lad - City (1997)

Having mentioned the band Oomph!, another key movement within '90s industrial metal was the subgenre known as Neue Deutsche Härte, translated from German as "New German Hardness," and often abbreviated to simply NDH or referred to as tanzmetall. This German-exclusive style of metal not only incorporates general electronic music aspects, but directly from electronic dance music. This provides the music with a much more pop-infused energy, and eventually gave rise to one of (if not) the most acknowledged and widespread band in industrial metal's history: Rammstein. Other bands and artists that piggyback on this style include Eisbrecher, Megaherz, ASP, and Turmion Kätilöt. This genre is where many of the now-common industrial metal tropes originated, both on a visual and sonic spectrum.

Recommended Neue Deutsche Härte listening:
1. Oomph! - Defekt (1995)
2. Rammstein - Mutter (2001)
3. Megaherz - Herzwerk II (2002)
4. Eisbrecher - Antikörper (2006)
5. ASP - Requiembryo (2007)

In the 2000s, industrial metal continued to intensify. Bands like Strapping Young Lad and Fear Factory held the helm of the genre, continuing to push it into areas of uncharted heaviness. Adding to this insane heaviness were bands such as Red Harvest and Sybreed, as well as industrial death metal bands like Scarve and industrial black metal bands like the Axis of Perdition. Devin Townsend's solo material began to combine a more dancy, campy style of industrial metal with alternative metal. Other bands like Pain, Static-X, and Zeromancer created a style of music that coexisted nicely with the height of the nu metal boom.

Recommended '00s industrial metal listening:
1. Thorns - Thorns (2001)
2. Red Harvest - Sick Transit Gloria Mundi (2002)
3. Killing Joke - Killing Joke (2003)
4. Strapping Young Lad - Alien (2005)
5. The Devin Townsend Project - Addicted (2009)

Another subgenre of industrial metal that took its first glimpse into the forefront in the 2000s was cyber metal. Originally seen in the late 1990s with bands like the Kovenant and Front Line Assembly, cyber metal (also known as futuristic metal) incorporates musical elements found in electronic music such as EBM and aggrotech. Melodic riffs, less harsh of a sound than prior industrial metal waves, and lyrical focus on technology, dystopian society, and totalitarianism are all characteristics of the subgenre. Bands such as Deathstars, Sybreed, and ...And Oceans lead the charge. Similarly, there exists a genre of metal known as trance metal, which not surprisingly is a fusion of trance and metal. It is debated as to whether or not this genre is a subgenre of industrial metal, or rather just a very niche offshoot and should be treated as such. I, for one, don't know enough (or have enough to say) about trance metal to warrant writing an entire blog post on it, so I'll include some recommendations on this entry. You can find many a pop melody in this subgenre, with bands such as Noidz, Amaranthe, Babymetal and Blood Stain Child gaining names for themselves due to their catchiness. Trance metal's tendency to involve anime culture and cross over with J-pop has led to some bands being labeled "anime metal" or "kawaii metal."

Recommended cyber metal listening:
1. The Kovenant - Animatronic (1999)
2. ...And Oceans - A.M. G.O.D. (2001)
3. Sybreed - Slave Design (2004)
4. Neurotech - Antagonist (2011)
5. Master Boot Record - Virus.DOS (2018)
Recommended trance metal listening:

1. Noidz - The Great Escape (2008)

2. 2 Times Terror - Equals One Sudden Death (2010)

3. Blood Stain Child - Epsilon (2011)

4. Babymetal - Babymetal (2014)

5. Amaranthe - Massive Addictive (2014)

In the 2010s, industrial metal was dominated by a great deal of sludgier, darker music that sometimes placed more emphasis on the industrial aspects than the metal ones. JK Flesh, Author & Punisher, Uniform, and Corrections House, among others, led this movement. Also notable in the genre's grand scheme was the implementation of industrial and cyber metal into video game music, becoming prominent in soundtracks written for games such as Doom and Metal Gear Rising. Giants from prior eras such as Godflesh, Rammstein, and Fear Factory continue to release prominent and forward-thinking music (even if some others don't... *cough* Ministry *cough*). Bands from other genres such as post-metal and blackgaze (Bliss Signal) and metalcore (Northlane) also began to flourish upon induction to the industrial fold.

Recommended '10s industrial metal listening:

1. Author & Punisher - Drone Machines (2010)

2. Corrections House - Last City Zero (2013)

3. Godflesh - A World Lit Only by Fire (2014)

4. Mick Gordon - Doom: Original Game Soundtrack (2016)

5. Uniform & The Body - Everything That Dies Someday Comes Back (2019)

Overall, industrial metal hasn't wavered in terms of consistent output, experimentation, and freshness (in my opinion). The genre will always have a basis on which to build itself, for as long as there's unrest in any sociopolitical system, there will be an industrial metal band ready to not only point out the flaws in its inner workings, but to envision the bleak, cold future ahead if certain issues are not resolved. Industrial metal, and industrial music in general, exists to shine a light on the dark side of the social game, and I applaud it for continually doing so in such an unflinching and unforgiving way.

Grindcore

Grindcore exists to both set and surpass boundaries for musical extremity. Extreme metal has existed prior to grindcore's grand appearance, sure. Death metal, black metal, and forms of thrash metal and doom metal have all firmly cemented themselves as extreme forms of music. What grindcore brought to the table to set itself apart from its genre contemporaries was a sheer sense of self-destruction; the idea that songs should collapse inward on themselves in short, violent bursts. But what exactly is grindcore? Where did it come from? And, perhaps most importantly, where is it going? Let's discuss.

Grindcore was born in the mid-1980s from the British crust punk scene, which already was bridging the gap between more extreme forms of punk and metal. Due to its origins as a hardcore punk offshoot, grindcore found itself centering around what has now been dubbed the "microsong." On most classic grindcore records, you'd be hard-pressed to find a track that surpasses the two-minute mark in length. Some, if not most, tracks don't even make it to a full minute. The ethos of grindcore revolves around powerful bursts of fiery misanthropist rage, rather than sprawling epics. Early grindcore bands like Carcass, Genocide, Napalm Death, Sore Throat, and Repulsion made very good use of this style of song. Slapping together the brevity and ferocity of hardcore with the raw, metallic edge of thrash metal and thrashcore, grindcore slammed into the underground metal and punk scenes with vigor.

Recommended '80s grindcore listening:
1. Napalm Death - Scum (1987)
2. Unseen Terror - Human Error (1987)
3. Sore Throat - Unhindered by Talent (1988)
4. Repulsion - Horrified (1989)
5. Macabre - Gloom (1989)

One of the most influential bands in the first wave grindcore scene was undeniably Carcass. So massive was their influence, that they inadvertently started a subgenre wave called goregrind as soon as they hit the ground. Goregrind is a very particular style of grindcore that makes extensive usage of medical terminologies and themes. Obviously, being an offshoot of grindcore, goregrind isn't exactly a musical rendition of a medical textbook... on the contrary. Themes of being torn apart by zombies, surgeons gone mad, or disease-ridden vermin are much more prevalent than any sort of lecture material, though the vernacular of the field is very much present. Carcass is the obvious trailblazer (and highlight) of the subgenre, but other bands of note such as Impetigo, General Surgery, and Exhumed have popped up along the way. It also spawned a sub-subgenre known as gorenoise or vomitnoise, which may tell you just by its name how insanely niche it is. It simply combines goregrind with noise music, as exemplified by bands such as Last Days of Humanity and Phyllomedusa. Some will claim that a lyrical focus on sexual content has stemmed into a subgenre known lovingly as pornogrind, though I consider most of that to just already fall under goregrind or grindcore enough. Plus bolding that word and acknowledging it as a genre just feels kinda wrong.

WARNING: When I say "recommended," I only mean for those who are legitimately interested in this music. Some of these albums and/or album artworks showcase things that may be unsettling to some. Listen/view at your own risk.

Recommended goregrind listening:
1. Carcass - Reek of Putrefaction (1988)
2. Impetigo - Horror of the Zombies (1992)
3. Dead Infection - A Chapter of Accidents (1995)
4. Exhumed - Gore Metal (1998)
5. General Surgery - Left Hand Pathology (2006)

Another stylistic change made to grindcore in the late '80s/early '90s was the implementation of death metal influence. This hybrid genre came to be affectionately known as deathgrind. I wrote a bit about this fusion in my death metal entry a while back, but it's equally (if not more) important in the context of a history of grindcore. Pioneered by the ever-amazing Terrorizer and their 1989 record World Downfall, deathgrind combines the intensity of grindcore with the technicality of death metal, resulting in songs with more lyrical and musical dynamics, longer runtimes, and more twists in style. As the 1990s and 2000s pressed on, more bands would join the genre's fold such as Brutal Truth, Dying Fetus, and Misery Index, as well as general grindcore bands like Napalm Death in their mid- to later-career. The style prevails today, with fantastic new bands and releases coming from modern artists like Cattle Decapitation and Full of Hell.

Recommended deathgrind listening:
1. Terrorizer - World Downfall (1989)
2. Brutal Truth - Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses (1992)
3. Napalm Death - Enemy of the Music Business (2000)
4. Misery Index - Heirs to Theivery (2010)
5. Cattle Decapitation - Monolith of Inhumanity (2012)

In the 1990s, grindcore was focusing on its subgenres. A handful of bands from the initial wave had either dissipated or moved onto different styles of music, such as Carcass leading the charge on the then-new melodic death metal scene. Some deathgrind bands like Brutal Truth and Assück maintained a solid backing in pure grindcore though, releasing sort of half-hybrid grind/deathgrind albums. Some bands like Naked City and PainKiller added an avant-garde, jazz-influenced sound into the grindcore fray. Other bands like Nasum, Discordance Axis, Unruh, and Excruciating Terror kept the pure grindcore flame lit. Unruh in particular began to fuse grindcore with the first wave of metalcore, another fusion genre between metal and hardcore punk.

Recommended '90s grindcore listening:
1. Naked City - Grand Guignol (1992)
2. Assück - Misery Index (1997)
3. Discordance Axis - Jouhou (1997)
4. Nasum - Inhale/Exhale (1998)
5. Unruh - Setting Fire to Sinking Ships (1999)

The 1990s brought yet another subgenre of grindcore onto the scene as well, though it didn't really take off beyond splits and demo tapes until the 2000s. Cybergrind is defined by its tendencies to include the dimensions electronic music into the grindcore sound. Computer-generated noises, drum machines, post-industrial music elements, and MIDI-based songs all contributed to this mass of oppressive sound. Grindcore was already a music for a certain type of person, but adding digitized elements to the genre only isolated it more, creating a near-impenetrable wall of underground experimentation. Agoraphobic Nosebleed is one of the most famous pioneers, but bands like Genghis Tron, Libido Airbag, and O.L.D. were significant contributors.

Recommended cybergrind listening:
1. Phantomsmasher - Phantomsmasher (2002)
2. Agoraphobic Nosebleed - Altered States of America (2003)
3. Curse of the Golden Vampire - Mass Destruction (2003)
4. Genghis Tron - Dead Mountain Mouth (2006)
5. Whourkr - Concrete (2008)

The 2000s saw a massive influx of interesting and new grindcore bands, the most prevalent of which was Pig Destroyer, but also including Insect Warfare, Rotten Sound, Magrudergrind (who paired the grindcore sound with powerviolence), Wormrot, Anaal Nathrakh (adding industrial metal elements to the mix), Gridlink, and the mathcore-tinged Antigama. Existing bands flourished as well, with Discordance Axis, Nasum, Napalm Death, and many others hitting new peaks. As demonstrated by the slew of new genres included in that bands list, grindcore thrives off of experimentation. Being such a freeform and carefree genre requires that it's ever-shifting, and the 2000s revived the style by doing just that.

Recommended '00s grindcore listening:
1. Discordance Axis - The Inalienable Dreamless (2000)
2. Pig Destroyer - Prowler in the Yard (2001)
3. Nasum - Helvete (2003)
4. Rotten Sound - Exit (2005)
5. Insect Warfare - World Extermination (2007)

With the 2010s came a sort of return to form for pure grindcore. Existing bands like Wormrot and Gridlink were precursors to this pure grindcore revival, with new bands popping up like Death Toll 80k, Cloud Rat, Internal Rot, Atka, No One Knows What the Dead Think, P.L.F., Beaten to Death, Bandit, and Flouride all gushing grindy goodness. Also taking flight was the grindcore/powerviolence crossover style, with the decade's biggest band Nails sporting the crossover, as well as Dead in the Dirt, the HIRS Collective, and Full of Hell.

Recommended '10s grindcore listening:
1. Nails - Unsilent Death (2010)
2. Death Toll 80k - Harsh Realities (2011)
3. Gridlink - Longhena (2014)
4. Wormrot - Voices (2016)
5. Cloud Rat - Pollinator (2019)

As a genre sporting more fire than most others I can name, grindcore is an exhaustive force. Violent spurts of anarchistic, misanthropic, politically- and/or medically-fueled rage is not for everybody. The artists know this, and as a result have even more fun with the concept. Grindcore exists to establish itself as beyond heavy music, and to continually push itself past its own barriers; always evolving and always intensifying. That's what keeps grindcore around for so long. That's what fuels its constant experimentation. And that's what keeps the listeners listening.

Neoclassical Metal

Up until now, a good many (if not all) of the genres that I have discussed on this blog have had relatively large and devoted followings, whether in the mainstream or more of a cult-status. Thus most people, metal fans or otherwise, have at least heard of some of these types of music. Neoclassical metal, however, is another ballpark entirely. Incredibly underrated and underappreciated even within metal circles, neoclassical metal stands even to this day as a pedestal of underground musical ingenuity and fluency. So let's check it out.

To put it simply, neoclassical metal is an offshoot of heavy metal that takes major influence from Western classical music, often to the point of covering pieces by Baroque composers such as Antonio Vivaldi, George Handel, and J.S. Bach. The style of playing is mega-technical, with major emphasis on the capabilities of lead instruments; often the guitar and keyboards. The genre is characterized primarily by the presence of what are often called "guitar virtuosos." Many popular guitarists play with a neoclassical style, such as John Petrucci from Dream Theater or Randy Rhoads of Ozzy Osbourne's band and Quiet Riot. However, that does not make the band "neoclassical metal."

When looking for one of the earliest examples of a neoclassical metal artist, look no further than the guitar wizard himself, Yngwie J. Malmsteen and his band Rising Force. In heavy metal, guitar solos have almost always been a thing, and a prevalent thing at that. What Malmsteen did with Rising Force however, skyrocketed this concept to the next level. With songs that moved just as similarly to Iron Maiden as they did to Niccolò Paganini, Malmsteen's compositions mirrored that of Classical-, Baroque-, and Romantic-period music. Following suit in the 1980s were a stream of classically-influenced shredders Tony MacAlpine, Vinnie Moore, Jason Becker, and Marty Friedman (as well as some bands like Cacophony and Racer X), all of whom were lumped into this new neoclassical metal genre.

Recommended '80s neoclassical metal listening:
1. Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force - Marching Out (1985)
2. Vinnie Moore - Mind's Eye (1986)
3. Tony MacAlpine - Maximum Security (1987)
4. Marty Friedman - Dragon's Kiss (1988)
5. Jason Becker - Perpetual Burn (1988)

Neoclassical metal, being a genre rooted in technicality and influences from art music, was destined to be linked at the hip with early progressive metal, and for good reason. As the 1990s entered the scene, neoclassical bands began to fuse their sound with the prog metal formula, leading to an influx of linked-genre bands such as Symphony X, Royal Hunt, and Concerto Moon. Symphony X in particular made huge waves in both the prog and neoclassical scene due to the incredible abilities of guitarist and founding member Michael Romeo. Also integral to the evolution of the sound was power metal, whose influence fit in greatly with neoclassical metal's flair for the grandiose. As a result, bands like Impellitteri, Cauldron Born and At Vance began to appear as well.

Recommended '90s neoclassical metal listening:
1. Impellitteri - Answer to the Master (1994)
2. Royal Hunt - Moving Target (1995)
3. Symphony X - The Divine Wings of Tragedy (1997)
4. Cauldron Born - Born of the Cauldron (1997)
5. Concerto Moon - Rain Forest (1999)

By the time the 2000s rolled around, neoclassical metal had almost become a subgenre of power metal, given how synonymous one term was with the other. The label was pressed upon just about every power metal band whose lead guitarist would duel with the keyboardist, and thus lost a bit of its weight. However, beneath the overlying power metal sound, there were legitimate neoclassical metal bands to be found, particularly in the likes of Galneryus, Space Odyssey, Iron Mask, Time Requiem, and the appropriately-named Majestic. Also still prevailing are the virtuoso solo artists the genre was initially known for, with releases from Bob Katsionis, Mark Boals, Vitalij Kuprij, Tony MacAlpine, and others.

Recommended '00s neoclassical metal listening:
1. Time Requiem - Time Requiem (2002)
2. Space Odyssey - Embrace the Galaxy (2003)
3. Iron Mask - Hordes of the Brave (2005)
4. Galneryus - Beyond the End of Despair... (2006)
5. Bob Katsionis - Noemon (2008)

In the 2010s, neoclassical metal remained a largely underground and minimally represented subgenre of metal. While the neoclassical power metal style of Galneryus still reigns as the primary incarnation of the sound, bands like Exmortus would also fuse neoclassical metal with thrash metal and speed metal, as well as an ever-increasing prevalence of symphonic metal elements. Bands like Tiluland, Magic Kingdom, Golden Resurrection, and Eihwaz lead the charge in terms of new arrivals.

Recommended '10s neoclassical metal listening:
1. Magic Kingdom - Symphony of War (2010)
2. Golden Resurrection - Glory to My King (2010)
3. Tiluland - Axes of the Universe (2010)
4. Galneryus - Under the Force of Courage (2015)
5. Exmortus - The Sound of Steel (2018)

Neoclassical metal as a whole has not made as big of a wave in the metal scene as, say, thrash metal or death metal... but it's reign of influence is undeniable. Being almost single-handedly the origin of guitar-centric metal music means that it has indirectly affected the new wave of progressive metal giants such as Animals as Leaders, Scale the Summit, and Plini. A common issue that detractors of metal music will pull is that the music sounds disjointed, angry, and uncivilized... but taking influence from Bach is just as far from that description as a metal band can get. The limits of creation are infinite.

Author's Note: Hey y'all! I'm back from the desert! Relatively short entry this time around, but still very excited to pick this little project back up. Hopefully all who read enjoyed, and stay tuned next week for another installment.