Do we have an opinion on this article?

[Jim LotFP]

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1852426,00.html

"Bassoons, flamenco, monks' cowls ... welcome to the new rock underground"

 

[DBB]

The underground is in better shape than it's been for years--and greedy for the prizes.

He is correct about this, unfortunately.

 

[Some Bastard]

An avant-gardist's view on what he perceives to be Heavy Metal. Not neccesarily a bad thing I think. Personally I wouldn't consider Sunn0))), Six Organs of Admittance or Comets on Fire Heavy Metal per se, but I do like their music which certainly contains some Heavy Metal-influences/mannerisms/overtones/whatever. Overall though their sound has more in common with The Velvet Underground and Kraut-rock like Can or Neu!, which still isn't all that far removed from Heavy Metal I think, although that probably also depends on one's personal definition of Heavy Metal.

Let's face it, Heavy Metal influenced by Heavy Metal is an evolutionary dead end. Heavy Metal doesn't sound anything like it did 25 years ago because it has evolved. It needed the influence of Punk, Hardcore, New Wave/Goth, Prog, Psych and/or Avant-garde to do that. And all through these evolutionary phases there have been purists and naysayers complaining that pure Heavy Metal was going to waste because newer bands didn't sound like Sabbath/Priest/Maiden/Metallica/Twisted Sister/Paradise Lost/Hellhammer/Manowar/Sodom/Whatever.

This article may very well contain the future of Heavy Metal (who can tell?)

 

[Occam's Razor]

As for the best outside look on heavy metal in acoustic form recently, go for Electric Masada's At the Mountains of Madness.