Future Of Heavy Metal

In the beginning there was Sabbath…..

Ozzy not taking part in the 1970 Movemeber campaign 

It is often argued where Heavy Metal started and there are many theories and ideas but if you generally believe that it all started with Black Sabbath you aren’t far wrong. Of course it was not known at the time what those first few notes on the song Black Sabbath would create but create it did. Call it calculation by Tony Iommi, call it luck, or divine intervention (having his finger tips chopped off which led to the way he plays guitar) what happened was huge! Through the 70’s the music grew skip 40 years and its now huge with a family tree of thousands of branches and genres that most metallers couldnt name all of.

During the 70’s Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Blue Oyster Cult and many more bands kick started the genre, each era has seen its giants dominate the scene. From Kiss in the late 70s Iron Maiden in the early 80’s closely followed by Judas Priest, then there was Van Halen, Ozzy Osbourne, Def Leppard. Moving into the 90’s heavy weights Metallica took up the mantle with a strong support cast. The millennium would not stop the juggernaut as unlikely heroes Slipknot became the biggest metal band of the decade. But who is the next big thing? And where is it coming from?

Name another British band with their own Plane!

One look at any heavy metal or hard rock festival and the same headliners are seen again and again. The concern is where are the next Iron Maiden and Metallica. Lets not get to worried just yet, as anyone who has seen Iron Maiden recently will have noticed Bruce Dickinson bounding around the stage like a 20 year old, and Metallica these days look and sound better than ever but there will come a time when Papa Hetfield will have to hang up his “Truckster”.  

If your 555 then i'm 666!!!!!

Obvious choices would be Slipknot, but with the sad news of the bassist dying and reports of relations between Joey Joridison and Corey Taylor not being the best it’s unlikely that we will see Slipknot being a year in year out band, sporadic appearances being the best we can hope for. Early contenders Linkin Park have gone so far the wrong way in the eyes of the metal world there announcement as a headliner will bring as many groans as cheers. With an eye on this summer’s two big Metal festivals it’s not hard to see there are future problems. Download announcing System of  a Down, Linkin Park and Def Leppard, this isn’t so bad but compare it to last year’s headliners of AC/DC, Aerosmith and Rage Against the Machine you are not getting the same quality of band for your money and it does seem to be confused as to where its target market is. Sonisphere announced Slipknot which was good and then Biffy Clyro which was a disaster but they pulled it around by announcing the Big 4 (Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax). Credit to Sonisphere for trying to introduce a younger more contemporary band and give them their break but most metal/hard rock fans will agree they could have picked a better one.

There are hundreds of young metal bands who have lots of potential, look to five years ago and Trivium were the big thing, they went from one unknown album to huge, everybody thought they were it. But they suffered with “Anthraxitis”, released a disappointing follow up to their breakthrough album and fans lost interest. (For note in the 80s when thrash metal came out Anthrax were tipped to become the next big thing. But the follow up to Among the Living didn’t quite live up to expectation and the rest is history, Metallica’s). But they seem to have fizzled out somewhat maybe this year and a new album can put them back on the map as pretenders to the top spot or was it a case of too much attention too young.

The media have a big say. You will never hear the younger bands on mainstream radio stations. The BBC shut down Bruce Dickinson’s Friday night rock show a positive outlet showcasing old favorites and also giving new talent airplay they might not get otherwise, this was very disappointing. So for a fan to discover new bands they must rely on other media, magazine, depending on what magazine you read will depend on what is reported on (nothing new there) Then there is the internet, trawling through YouTube and best of all is talk to other fans, read message boards etc.

Chimaira - One of my favorite bands of the last 10 years, Please Tour the UK soon!!!!!!

A wave of bands have achieved a lot in metal and recorded some great albums, Mastodon, Lamb of God, Chimaira but they haven’t reached the sort of album sales their talent deserves. This is because there are just too many genres of metal now. This is a good and a bad thing. Go back to the mid 80s and there were only 2 or 3 genres. There was Traditional Heavy Metal (Iron Maiden, Judas Preist etc etc) and the New Wave Metal, Trash ( Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, Exodus etc etc) Now when you meet a fellow Metaller you will argue about which genre is better, Melodic Death Metal or Symphonic Black Metal, Hardcore or Metalcore.

And here in lies the strength, a tree is only as strong as its roots. This being true Metal has hundreds of roots with so many different genres. What is important is that an individual support the bands they like, buy the CD’s (download the MP3 if that’s what the kids do these days) wear a t-shirt and most importantly go and see them live!

Opeth - Royal Albert Hall, What a Night!!!!

No one could have predicted in 1990 that Metallica would be the biggest band in the world some day (maybe Lars Ulrich) but that they are and that is because 21 million people bought the Black Album and millions of people around the world go and see them live. There will probably never be a band of that magnitude but what gives hope is that a niche band like Opeth (a band from Sweden specializing in Progressive Death Metal, if you must label things) can play the Royal Albert Hall. Basically Metal is being made for Metallers if you like Alternative Viking Gypsy Metal it’s there for you. The fact here may never be a huge band is not such a bad thing, Metal lives very healthily with no outside support it will be upon you young Metal fan to get behind their favorite acts. So long as our gigs and festivals are well attended I have no doubt a band will break out of the arena and into the stadium, the headliners will out!