Metal sub-genre phases/cycles

[SonOfNun]

Since I started listening to metal more intently again, I think I've cycled through each of the major traditional metal sub-genres with greater or lesser intensity.

I started off by diving back into Black Metal (which is pretty much where I left off) and then Death Metal (which makes sense because this was basically where I started the first time around). After that, however, I was on a big Thrash kick for quite awhile, then I went on to Power Metal, traditional Heavy Metal, and now Doom. These latter four I had not spent substantial time on and I had never really listened to Power or Doom outside of one or two bands. In a sense, this process has just expanded on the phases I use to go through with different types of extreme metal. It's led to a re-shuffling of favorite sub-genres with Thrash and Doom on the rise and Death on the decline.

I would assume that almost everyone experiences these phases so: How often do you go through different phases of listening? Have some sub-genres been phased out? What do you mostly listen to nowadays?

 

[NAD]

The Book of Souls came out and ever since I have been in a pretty intense Iron Maiden phase, one that lead to the true joy of traditional heavy metal. Really never much cared for the OG stuff until then, including Maiden which I was always really ehhh on previously. This opened me up to a lot of bands that I dismissed long ago and has greatly improved my air guitar skills.

 

[J.]

Ive been through phases of most types of metal, but I can honestly say ive never been through a thrash or industrial phase. I used to buy all the CDs I could of whatever genre, then tire of them quickly, keeping the ones I liked the most. Nowadays, I listen before buying since I have a ton of time at work. I have youtube or bandcamp playing nonstop. If I like it, I buy it. Easier on the wallet.

These days, I listen to whatever feels right at the time. For example, Im at work at this moment and going through Rotting Christ's discography via youtube.

I'm stuck mostly to black metal to be honest, exploring all the different avenues there including the pagan/viking/folk stuff to the spacey ambient to 2nd wave stuff and even some of those weird left field albums. It just fits me I guess.

Some of the more newer finds as of late that Ive been playing.....Evilfeast, Flamen, Imperium Dekadenz, Amber Tears

Older bands that get playing time lately: Akercocke, Bal Sagoth, Graveland (of course), Necrophobic, Ildra, Obsequiae, Thurisaz, Shylmagoghnar, Khemmis, Howling Giant

But frankly, the one artist I follow the most these days is Ayloss, he of Spectral Lore, Divine Element, and Mystras. That dude writes some amazing and memorable music.

When you have enough time to dedicate to it, listen to III, Sol, and the Wanderers albums: https://spectrallore.bandcamp.com/

Divine Element: https://divineelement.bandcamp.com/

 

[Krilons Resa]

Oh, man. Where do I begin? My music listening is in constant phases and discovering different sub genres/scenes/time periods spanning ever style of music under the sun. Except Country music though...cuz fuck Country music.

I’ll expand on this later when I have more time and feel inclined while binging on 90’s post-hardcore/noise rock.

 

[Ellestin]

Yeah I have these phases where I listen to music and phases where I don't, generally during the sleeping hours.

 

[SonOfNun]

The Book of Souls came out and ever since I have been in a pretty intense Iron Maiden phase, one that lead to the true joy of traditional heavy metal. Really never much cared for the OG stuff until then, including Maiden which I was always really ehhh on previously. This opened me up to a lot of bands that I dismissed long ago and has greatly improved my air guitar skills.

Iron Maiden's "The Number of the Beast" is actually one of the few traditional Heavy Metal albums that I enjoyed back in the day. It's still amazing. I haven't been able to get into some of the stuff after it yet (though I haven't tried that hard). I don't know how to describe it, but it seems like they went in a little more progressive of a direction. I'll probably enjoy it more later on, but I love the pure heavy metal charm of NotB.

Ive been through phases of most types of metal, but I can honestly say ive never been through a thrash or industrial phase. I used to buy all the CDs I could of whatever genre, then tire of them quickly, keeping the ones I liked the most. Nowadays, I listen before buying since I have a ton of time at work. I have youtube or bandcamp playing nonstop. If I like it, I buy it. Easier on the wallet.

These days, I listen to whatever feels right at the time. For example, Im at work at this moment and going through Rotting Christ's discography via youtube.

I'm stuck mostly to black metal to be honest, exploring all the different avenues there including the pagan/viking/folk stuff to the spacey ambient to 2nd wave stuff and even some of those weird left field albums. It just fits me I guess.

Some of the more newer finds as of late that Ive been playing.....Evilfeast, Flamen, Imperium Dekadenz, Amber Tears

Older bands that get playing time lately: Akercocke, Bal Sagoth, Graveland (of course), Necrophobic, Ildra, Obsequiae, Thurisaz, Shylmagoghnar, Khemmis, Howling Giant

But frankly, the one artist I follow the most these days is Ayloss, he of Spectral Lore, Divine Element, and Mystras. That dude writes some amazing and memorable music.

When you have enough time to dedicate to it, listen to III, Sol, and the Wanderers albums: https://spectrallore.bandcamp.com/

Divine Element: https://divineelement.bandcamp.com/

I've never had any interest in industrial or anything too far on the ambient side. I'm more of a meat and potatoes guy and I stick closer to the traditional sub-genres.

I listened to a little bit of Spectral Lore on Wanderers and it sounds interesting. The more black metal parts reminded me a bit of Reverorum ib Malacht (except Malacht is unrelenting and sounds like they played their instruments in a different room than the one the recording equipment was in):



Have you heard Panegyrist? They're on the same label as Spectral Lore and their mastermind did the cover art for that Wanderers album:

Oh, man. Where do I begin? My music listening is in constant phases and discovering different sub genres/scenes/time periods spanning ever style of music under the sun. Except Country music though...cuz fuck Country music.

I’ll expand on this later when I have more time and feel inclined while binging on 90’s post-hardcore/noise rock.

I like country, blues, and a little old-timey/bluegrass type music. Johnny Cash's American albums are just good music for the human condition. There's a lot of quality stuff like that in those genres, but anything pretending to represent them in the mainstream is far off-base.

 

[J.]

Yes, Ive heard of Panegyrist. I spend time on the I, Voidhanger bandcamp pagr. I like that a lot of their bands push the envelope in whatever genre theyre in.

 

[J.]

found an affordable place selling the Panegyrist.

I love www.themetaldetektor.com

 

[SonOfNun]

found an affordable place selling the Panegyrist.

I love www.themetaldetektor.com

Nice. I got mine several months ago from Nordic Mission. From the way Elijah Tamu tallks and from the description on Rubeus Obex, I'm almost certain he is an Orthodox Christian. Another good band headed by an OC is Hesychast. They are more on the atmospheric than experimental side, but they incorporate some Russian Orthodox chanting/aesthetic. They have a new album in the works that should improve on the formula. This is their debut:



I can show you where to get a CD if you like it.

 

[SonOfNun]

Oh, man. Where do I begin? My music listening is in constant phases and discovering different sub genres/scenes/time periods spanning ever style of music under the sun. Except Country music though...cuz fuck Country music.

I’ll expand on this later when I have more time and feel inclined while binging on 90’s post-hardcore/noise rock.

I think your answer to this thread is Melvins.

 

[Krilons Resa]

My answer to most things is Melvins, actually.

 

[einride]

i'm not saying this is a universal truth but for me it has historically gone a little bit in phases like this:

1. discovery

this is where you are now because you've discovered a whole new world of music and you're buying every doom metal album ever and everything sounds fresh and exciting and omg there's just so much great music!!!

2. realization

this is where you've been listening for a while, peeked behind the curtain, learned all the tricks, and you finally realize that not all of it is actually that great and about 80% of it is just imitating better stuff. but you still kind of keep buying the 7/10 albums because it's still good-ish and you're still kinda-sorta expanding your horizons

3. withdrawal

this is where i am with almost all metal. when all the mediocrity makes you tired and angry and you make a conscious decision to weed out everything that's less than 10/10 some of the best the genre has to offer because you have way past enough music to listen to, and life is too short for sub-standard tunes


so i'm well, well into the end phase with just about every style of metal except for some things that still sound fresh and interesting to me like weird off-kilter 80's demotape metal and some of the japanese scene for instance. yes i still love metal and think it has immense potential as a medium. but no i don't ever need to listen to a bunch of random bozos ripping off saint vitus or darkthrone.

i don't see myself returning to being enthusiastic about exploring death, thrash or doom metal, like, ever -- because i really really feel like i know every trick these guys could possibly have up their sleeves and everything is just more of the same. so for the most part i listen to things that are not metal now, things that still feel inspiring. lately i'm all about classical minimalism and 70's prog rock. i'm sure i will eventually get disillusioned with these things too.


another observation i have real quick is that surprisingly, all of the super depressive mega misanthropic stuff that i traditionally have been into kind of loses its attraction when you're not a super depressed mega misanthrope anymore

so that leaves me in a weird position where A LOT of the stuff i think is 10/10 extremely important and great Art is also stuff i'm not really ever in the mood to listen to

 

[Ellestin]

good post

It's nice that your new life-loving approach comes with articulate justifications. Usually people that start giving metal the cold shoulder are just like "meh, I've grown up" and proceed to dump their entire collection as fast as possible.

 

[NAD]

That is a pretty solid breakdown of the process.

When I get burned out on genres, I start focusing more on bands. I kind of enjoy the 7/10 releases if it's from a band that I love. Lookin' at you, mediocre eras Darkthrone and Pink Floyd.

 

[Ellestin]

I can go weeks without listening to a single metal riff. The thing is, I exposed myself to a pretty wide array of styles very early on, more than I could handle really (not to mention my wallet), and with every game-changing discovery I felt that I had found my calling. But now I suppose that I have a fairly balanced grasp of all the genres I enjoy, so whenever I'm in a classical music, 70s folk or raw BM spree, I never burn myself out on these, and just switch naturally to the next cycle after a couple weeks.

And I still enjoy digging for new bands from time to time, with moderate success, but not as compulsively as before, because yeah, after a while you don't need ages to spot whether something is plain rehash or will have extremely limited replay value.

 

[Doom]

so that leaves me in a weird position where A LOT of the stuff i think is 10/10 extremely important and great Art is also stuff i'm not really ever in the mood to listen to

I found this over the last year when I revisited albums that I would tell myself were top 10, 10/10 material, despite not having bothered to listen them for years. Then I'm surprised when I don't have the emotional reaction to them I once did. It's kind of depressing in itself.

 

[Ellestin]

Darkthrone and Pink Floyd

kiss me

 

[NAD]

kiss me

Hiking Metal Pinkage..........FOREVER!!!

 

[Krilons Resa]

That's why it's so much more fun/better to discover all of the older shit that you never gave a chance/haven't gotten into yet that has proven itself to survived the test of time. Nowadays, we tend to live in a ridiculous culture where every.fucking.thing is disposable and only interested in the newest shiny thing or, even better yet, being the first one to discover said shiny thing and putting it on display. Most of the FB music groups I am a member of are like this and it's the constant posting of good-ish albums that were just released that must be listened to a few times and disposed of for the next shiny thing.

I mean, I have fallen prey to this culture at times as well but have to smack myself and wake up to the fact that I'm just trying to fill the void like every other empty soul out there. I still listen to entirely too much newer shit because I enjoy the discovery but most of it doesn't really have TRUE lasting appeal if I am honest with myself. Outside of the old favorite bands, maybe 1-2 albums per year if you're lucky and then those artists can start to be followed. I guess it's worth it for them 1-2 albums though 'cuz music is life, amirite? However, I see some idiots posting Top 100 of Year X lists every year and wonder how much time they truly spent with these albums, getting intimate with them, letting them seep into their pores, and letting it become part of you on some level...if you know what I mean. Maybe they all have small dick syndrome. ...Or maybe I'm being overly romantic about all of this.

 

[einride]

That's why it's so much more fun/better to discover all of the older shit that you never gave a chance/haven't gotten into yet that has proven itself to survived the test of time. Nowadays, we tend to live in a ridiculous culture where every.fucking.thing is disposable and only interested in the newest shiny thing or, even better yet, being the first one to discover said shiny thing and putting it on display. Most of the FB music groups I am a member of are like this and it's the constant posting of good-ish albums that were just released that must be listened to a few times and disposed of for the next shiny thing.

I mean, I have fallen prey to this culture at times as well but have to smack myself and wake up to the fact that I'm just trying to fill the void like every other empty soul out there. I still listen to entirely too much newer shit because I enjoy the discovery but most of it doesn't really have TRUE lasting appeal if I am honest with myself. Outside of the old favorite bands, maybe 1-2 albums per year if you're lucky and then those artists can start to be followed. I guess it's worth it for them 1-2 albums though 'cuz music is life, amirite? However, I see some idiots posting Top 100 of Year X lists every year and wonder how much time they truly spent with these albums, getting intimate with them, letting them seep into their pores, and letting it become part of you on some level...if you know what I mean. Maybe they all have small dick syndrome. ...Or maybe I'm being overly romantic about all of this.

yep i pretty much agree 100% with this

whenever i see these "top 100" lists it's always a real eye-roller. like really? can you hum a melody from each of these albums? how about recite a couple lines of lyrics? can you say something about what defines the individual songs or how they make you feel?

sometimes it takes years to even know whether an album belongs on any kind of top-whatever list. sometimes music that seems insignificant or confusing or bad ends up being inducted into the pantheon of immortal classics; more often the flavor-of-the-day goes bad pretty fast.



i made the point about standing the test of time in the podcast interview i posted a while back, when arguing that no, i'm not just getting old, metal is actually getting worse and less creative in general -- i was like "okay but it's twenty years later and now we have hindsight -- what metal albums from 2000 are actual immortal classics that will stand the test of time forever?"

https://rateyourmusic.com/charts/top/album/2000/g:metal/

look at this shit. gamma ray? i mean i like "brave new world" by iron maiden as much as the next guy but you're fucking kidding yourself if you think it's a capital-c Classic. and then you look at

https://rateyourmusic.com/charts/top/album/1986/g:metal/

and it's like a one-two-twenty punch of unfuckwithable bonafide Classics. but this is getting into another argument that i've had a few times too many