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Is metal dying?


mountbrocken

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1 minute ago, Balor said:

It is definitely not dying in the slightest.  There is a continual influx of new albums being released around the world (though often of dubious quality) - just check out bandcamp.

True dat.

There's way more than I can keep up with. I guess it depends on what you're into, but at least in the black and death metal realms, good new stuff is coming out all the time. So much so that I'm a little burned out at the moment.

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I am just concerned about the ages of listeners.  I know new stuff is always being created.  But firstly, are these young bands?  And secondly, are young people listening to them?  I do hope so.  It just seems in the states there isn't a large youth metal movement.  Possibly this is not the case in, say, Norway or other countries where metal is significant.

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16 minutes ago, mountbrocken said:

I am just concerned about the ages of listeners.  I know new stuff is always being created.  But firstly, are these young bands?  And secondly, are young people listening to them?  I do hope so.  It just seems in the states there isn't a large youth metal movement.  Possibly this is not the case in, say, Norway or other countries where metal is significant.

Young bands, young people, yeah, absolutely. Most of the metalheads I interact with online - all over the world, but mostly from the US - are early to mid 20s, and a lot of them are knowledgeable and passionate. It's pretty great. At the same time, it's heartening to me that there are older fans, older musicians, and more long-running bands still going strong. Metal is a big tent.

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15 hours ago, mountbrocken said:

I agree it is a big tent.  I am just concerned with its popularity in high schools in the US.  I work around youth and it seems most are not at all interested in metal.  I would like to see that change however.  

Hip hop/r&b are the popular genres right now (at least in the US).  There will likely always be people (of any age) interested in underground or extreme music.  Thus, it is up to us fans to share and spread the music that we love.  That being said, nothing lasts forever - metal included.

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Metal is very much alive here in the us  because  it is still selling well may not be platinum statues  a lot of  metal albums are still charting in the billboard top 100 heat seekers digital albums and Indy charts  if metal was in Trouble they wouldn’t be charting  

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Metal is not at mainstream right now but I think that it is more than alive! I am from Serbia and I am getting a feeling that the world has become a really small place because kids in my school are pretty much folowing the globalised trend set by celebrities from , mainly, US. Rap is really popular herex stuff like Post Malone, Drake, that guy that passed away, Eminem of course and that type of performers. But even small country like mine has some so to say, popular metal bands that are gaining good atention. Metal is good and healthy it seems to me, he is just out of public eye.

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15 hours ago, Comprodrigue said:

Metal is not at mainstream right now but I think that it is more than alive! I am from Serbia and I am getting a feeling that the world has become a really small place because kids in my school are pretty much folowing the globalised trend set by celebrities from , mainly, US. Rap is really popular herex stuff like Post Malone, Drake, that guy that passed away, Eminem of course and that type of performers. But even small country like mine has some so to say, popular metal bands that are gaining good atention. Metal is good and healthy it seems to me, he is just out of public eye.

You make an interesting point in bringing up the internet.  It makes me wonder as to what extent online communities/platforms have had in keeping metal going.

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23 hours ago, Balor said:

You make an interesting point in bringing up the internet.  It makes me wonder as to what extent online communities/platforms have had in keeping metal going.

I reckon that it is in a great extent. I was watching Rob Chapman´s video that is an answer to CircleofTone(if I remember that correctly) on topic that metal music is dead. CoT stated that metal is dying because the legends of genre are absent and not existent anymore. No metal on TV, newspaper, radio etc. And Rob said, with whom I totally agree, that what radio and TV were for music in the past, that is youtube today! And really, tons of youtubers promoting the metal in various ways, entertaining, as critic, analysis… I think internet does a pretty good job of keeping metal wheels in motion. 

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41 minutes ago, Comprodrigue said:

I reckon that it is in a great extent. I was watching Rob Chapman´s video that is an answer to CircleofTone(if I remember that correctly) on topic that metal music is dead. CoT stated that metal is dying because the legends of genre are absent and not existent anymore. No metal on TV, newspaper, radio etc. And Rob said, with whom I totally agree, that what radio and TV were for music in the past, that is youtube today! And really, tons of youtubers promoting the metal in various ways, entertaining, as critic, analysis… I think internet does a pretty good job of keeping metal wheels in motion. 

I agree with your analysis.  Whoever said that metal legends are no longer producing anything is completely wrong, though.  Metallica still performs for stadiums, Ihsahn just did a new album, and Youtube and Bandcamp are constantly featuring new releases.

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3 hours ago, Balor said:

I agree with your analysis.  Whoever said that metal legends are no longer producing anything is completely wrong, though.  Metallica still performs for stadiums, Ihsahn just did a new album, and Youtube and Bandcamp are constantly featuring new releases.

True. Also Maiden is still fulling the stadiums around the globe!

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No. It's just normal for every genre to have a good stretch and a bad stretch. Hip hop and electronic pop (not calling today's bullshit synthpop because I quite like 80s synthpop) are dominant genres but eventually they'll become less dominant and another genre will take over the charts. Metal was never intended to be a dominant genre and it was supposed to be a fairly underground genre and that's how it is today. I mean, there is some metal in the charts and when big bands like Maiden, Priest, or Metallica, especially, release something it charts well.

But the older and more popular bands often make subpar material and won't be around too much longer, and the newer and popular metal bands like FFDP are often rubbish, so any good new metal is on the underground.

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There is an ebb and flow in everything. But if metal was really dead then forums such as this one would not exsist!

But as for the younger generation in general, I think many seemed zombiefied to be honest: hunchedbacked and bent over their smartphones in the one hand and a soft drink or hamburger in their other hand. I guess, it's hard to feel and look rebelious then.

However a band such as Salems Lott is a fairly young band and based on the comments on Youtube, then many are thristing for more bands like them. They are certainly refreshing in more ways than one, but the fact that they call themselves the last real metal band is a bit depressing, but definitely saids a lot about the music scene and - well youth scene as a whole. Everything  feels stale these days. Instead of reinventing things, then people are waiting for something new to happen, but no one is doing shit about it!!!

Things feel more political these days when it comes to active non-sheeple young people: you got Antifa on the one side and a growing nationalist movement on the other side. Now I am not going to voice my oppinion on either in this thread, but none have anything in particular to do with music!

Sometimes I wish that all the cell towers would burn out so that people would get of their smartphones and notice the world around them!

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14 hours ago, Tortuga said:

There is an ebb and flow in everything. But if metal was really dead then forums such as this one would not exsist!

But as for the younger generation in general, I think many seemed zombiefied to be honest: hunchedbacked and bent over their smartphones in the one hand and a soft drink or hamburger in their other hand. I guess, it's hard to feel and look rebelious then.

However a band such as Salems Lott is a fairly young band and based on the comments on Youtube, then many are thristing for more bands like them. They are certainly refreshing in more ways than one, but the fact that they call themselves the last real metal band is a bit depressing, but definitely saids a lot about the music scene and - well youth scene as a whole. Everything  feels stale these days. Instead of reinventing things, then people are waiting for something new to happen, but no one is doing shit about it!!!

Things feel more political these days when it comes to active non-sheeple young people: you got Antifa on the one side and a growing nationalist movement on the other side. Now I am not going to voice my oppinion on either in this thread, but none have anything in particular to do with music!

Sometimes I wish that all the cell towers would burn out so that people would get of their smartphones and notice the world around them!

I would say that a lot more people than just the young are "zombified" nowadays.  Also a lot of metal today is quite political.  On one end of the spectrum you have the right-wing nationalist bands associated with groups like Militant Zone, and on the other you have liberal trolls like Neckbeard Deathcamp. 

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On 8/9/2018 at 4:58 PM, Balor said:

I would say that a lot more people than just the young are "zombified" nowadays.  Also a lot of metal today is quite political.  On one end of the spectrum you have the right-wing nationalist bands associated with groups like Militant Zone, and on the other you have liberal trolls like Neckbeard Deathcamp. 

You are right, not only the younger generation are "zombified" today, a lot of people regardless of age seem that way. But it seems like it has always been the young who have brought a long change, new and fresh ways of thinking - keeping the world on it it's toes and forcing it to evolve. My nightmare scenario is a world were everybody does as they are told, nobody thinks an independent thought, and nobody stands up for themselves...a futuristic dystrophian world. And that thought of that scares me!

Both bands you mention are a bit political extreme - on both side of the spectrum for me - but who knows perhaps I will check one of them out some day. So thanks for the tip :)

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