Suggestions for 'other' Four Horsemen...

[None_So_Vile]

Thrash - Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax

Doom - My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost, Anathema, Cathedral

Melo Death - In Flames, Soilwork, Dark Tranquillity, At The Gates

Power Metal - Blind Guardian, Gamma Ray, Helloween, Iced Earth

Black Metal - Darkthrone, Mayhem, Emperor, Immortal

Death Metal - Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Deicide, Nile (tough because Death and Obituary also need to be included)

Grindcore - Napalm Death, Brutal Truth, Nasum, Carcass

Nu-Metal - Slipknot, Korn, Linkin Park, System of a Down

Traditional Metal - Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Saxon

Cant be arsed with any others

 

[hibernal_dream]

Well for a start I'd take Anthrax and Megadeth out of the 'major 4' and put in Testament and Exodus.

Testament was a bit of a late starter to be considered, and Exodus arguably got weaker with each album. Although I agree that Anthrax was always a tier below the other three. Forbidden and Overkill are other likely candidates had the 'big four' been considered in the 90's

 

[no country for old wainds]

Testament was a bit of a late starter to be considered, and Exodus arguably got weaker with each album. Although I agree that Anthrax was always a tier below the other three. Forbidden and Overkill are other likely candidates had the 'big four' been considered in the 90's

Yeah, fair enough. I was never keen on Megadeth though so I wouldn't have them in there.

 

[dill_the_devil]

Funny how everybody seems pretty much agreed on the death metal and black metal genres... does that mean that there are only really a few select genre figureheads for those styles, and all the other bands aren't really innovative or influential enough? Is that a sign of each genre's stagnation?

Just trying to provoke some debate, mind... hehehe...

 

[anonymousnick2001]

Not really.

Name a black metal band that has matched Darkthrone, Immortal, Mayhem, or the almighty Emperor.

Aside from Arcturus, Ulver, Dimmu Borgir, And Oceans, Burzum, Cradle Of Filth, or Borknagar, I'm not really hearing of many black metal bands shifting units, touring, and really impressing people. And most of the ones I mentioned are experimental in more ways than one. Yet there are loads of black metal bands. Perhaps the Big Four have just set ultra-lofty standards, or stuck to their guns, and now newer bands just want to do something different...

Now, pure death metal has been dead since 1995, when At The Gates, Meshuggah, and Fear Factory destagnated the genre and changed it into a new style. Some bands have survived through utter brutality and technicality(Suffocation, Cryptopsy), but generally, I think death has died, and the main five or six are all that anyone cares to remember.

 

[dill_the_devil]

It seems that recently, the BM bands who create the biggest stir in the extreme music press and in the underground are those who go back to the roots of the 2nd wave of the Norwegian scene or take that blueprint and add industrial elements to it (Anaal Nathrakh, Frost, Xasthur, Axis Of Perdition, and to a lesser extent Svartsyn)... whereas BM bands previously hailed as innovators (like Tidfall) have effectively missed their window of opportunity and fallen out of favour... as for DM, I'm completely with you there - death metal has been a largely stagnant and un-evolved scene since the mid-nineties... over the last week I've listened to the new releases by Aborted, Fleshgrind, Monstrosity and Vile, and none stand out from the rest of the genre in any way, meaning they can only really be judged in comparison to previous releases by the same bands...