Can anything truly "new" be done with metal?

[Ganymede]

Can anyone achieve pure and honest origionality in metal any more? Is there a guitar riff out there that sounds like NOTHING else? Is there a listenable vocal style that is absolutely unique? Is there a style of playing that has never been tried before?
I seem not to think so. The limits of technicality, speed, brutality, and melody have all been reached (within metal). Crossing those boundaries either make the music non-metal or non-music. I'm not saying that metal is dead, no way. But metal has little room to grow. Comments?

 

[genocide roach]

yes. recently it can be found in the avant garde/post black metal bands like ephel duath, age of silence, winds, newer enslaved...

with that said, i think that while there are other styles of music, there will always be new things to add to metal. metal in its nature is very broad and open to new ideas. so its only a mater of time before somting new comes to music and it will come to metal as a result
~gR~

 

[Scourge of Malice]

Look out for bands like Pelican and ISIS

 

[Birkenau]

Yeah, because they're really new and exciting.

These avant-garde or post-whatever bands aren't doing shit to improve the music scene, and they certainly aren't going anywhere. Rehashing the same old boring shit and adding wankery flutes and samples isn't doing anything new, it's just a gigantic gimmick that only a moron would percieve as innovative.

Did Burzum or Mayhem have to resort to post/avant-garde tags? No. Did Black Sabbath and Slayer have to resort to post/avant-garde tags? No of course not. Instead of redoing an old concept, they came up with a new one, and a new sound as well, unfortunately most current bands are unable to do such, and just hop onto the trend train.

I'm thinking that towards the end of the '00s we'll start to see something new in the metal scene, and probably the rock scene as well, and early '10s there will be a new wave of bands actually doing something new. :Spin:

 

[Pitiless Wanderer]

nothing new can be done. now its just a matter of being better than your peers.

 

[The Grimace]

HALO
Psyopus
Ed Gein
Scarve
Crowpath
The End
Sikth

And of course the incomparable Ephel Duath.

Any of these band's releases from the last couple years are worthy of their own new sub-genres.

 

[Susperia]

In my experience I've found that there's always something new to be done... Maybe not as extreme as say someone inventing Black Metal. Metal as a genre hasn't been around long enough to be done for yet, in my opinion.

 

[madu]

I'm guessing the truly new things to do with metal will lean to the softer side, as I can't really imagine anything more extreme than what we already have being listenable.

But yeah, there's plenty original bands around that can't really be classified in an already existing genre, Ephel Duath and maudlin of the Well, for example, so there's hope that more original stuff will spring up, eventually to form a new genre.

And isn't there some new genres made up recently? I'm not into sludge, but I think it's pretty new, and sludge isn't just re-hashing doom metal, it's something completely new.

 

[MetalAges]

I thought Mechanical Poet did a pretty damn good job of doing something new, or bringing a twist to the genre anyway.

 

[10293847]

Wait for the first release from Negativa. I expect it to be radically different.

 

[polarity3]

I'm guessing the truly new things to do with metal will lean to the softer side, as I can't really imagine anything more extreme than what we already have being listenable.

Not that this necessarily makes you wrong, but I'm sure people said the same thing after heavy metal first came out. And thrash, and death metal.

 

[Demilich]

Yeah, because they're really new and exciting.

These avant-garde or post-whatever bands aren't doing shit to improve the music scene, and they certainly aren't going anywhere. Rehashing the same old boring shit and adding wankery flutes and samples isn't doing anything new, it's just a gigantic gimmick that only a moron would percieve as innovative.

Did Burzum or Mayhem have to resort to post/avant-garde tags? No. Did Black Sabbath and Slayer have to resort to post/avant-garde tags? No of course not. Instead of redoing an old concept, they came up with a new one, and a new sound as well, unfortunately most current bands are unable to do such, and just hop onto the trend train.

This guy speaks the damn truth!

 

[Freanan]

I think there is still room for truly innovative original new bands, maybe even new subgenres (i mean really new subgenres, not clones) - but it is allways difficult to innovate and onbly few bands do it.

 

[Hammer of Might]

I think it's hard for bands to do new things and get credit for it, because people always seem to be pretty conservative with what they accept as metal or not.

But I'm sure things will evolve, just as they have over the last few decades. There are always far more bands who jump on the current style than one's who expand things, but they're the ones who tend to get left behind.

So just wait and see I suppose. Personally I like the mixing of thrash and black metal that some newer bands are doing.

P.S. Ganymede made a good thread!!

 

[Scourge of Malice]

Wow, foolish

 

[AsModEe]

most of that avant-garde stuff fucking bores me... Metal bands that try to innovate too much tend to become something else than metal.

 

[VomitBubble]

I think Blut Aus Nord spoke a few good words for the direction of metal.

Outside of that, metal hasn't reached it's utmost extremity or pushed it's limits completely yet, I don't think. I blame the fact that it seems like people are just making metal bands to make metal bands, rather than create music. And thus plagueing the scene with the image of stasis.

 

[MasterOLightning]

I think stuff like Peccatum or newer Ulver is pretty good. Like someone else said, metal is really flexible, and probably the most diverse genre of music.

I think as it becomes easier for someone to record their own music, we'll have more individual projects, and since these often rely heavily on electronics and programming, there will be more electronica/techno/metal bands. I haven't heard of a group who really successfully did that, but someone will eventually. If it's really good, there will be imitators.

 

[AsModEe]

Blood Inside isn't metal imo

 

[MasterOLightning]

Well, no not really. Peccatum is borderline too. But the point is that these are bands, or individuals who were 100% metal at one time, and are now doing completely new things. It's possible that others that are a big part of a scene will change what they want to do, and these plans could include metal (Peccatum) or not (Ulver).