Metal: returning from the dead?

Listening to Schubert on a Saturday morning:

Underground metal died somewhere between 1992 and 1996, depending on who you talk to. Bottom line: by 1996 neither the quality nor the abundance of distinctive releases was what it had been.

From 1996 to about 2002, the metal community waffled and tried to re-live the past. Then with the rise of Opeth and later indie-metal like Boris, in about 2004 the metal community threw in the towel and decided to let itself by assimilated by indie-rock.

From 2004-2009 the rise of metalcore, indiecore, nu-metal and black hardcore continued unabated, until people realized that (a) this music had more in common with self-pitying egodrama radio rock than soul-renewing heavy metal and (b) that the new audience of “metalheads” were hipster idiots as a result.

Starting in 2009, we had a revival of the underground. Are we supposed to be cheering? Yes — guardedly. Every time anything retro emerges, all the frauds come out of the woodwork along with the honest artists, and the frauds tend to win out by sheer volume.

A few asides:

(1) Long live the notion of meaning to life. We don’t need it to be inherent, we just need it to be there to discover.

(2) Long live art. Art sings the sad and the good together into a balance, but makes that balance exciting, like a space through which we can dart and dive and discover ourselves again.

(3) The ego has its place, but the ego can fool us like a Satan-God hybrid that lures us away from life itself.

(4) Nothing is as it seems.

(5) Metal is a renovation of our spirit; it is the war-spirit mixed with the sentiment for all the beautiful things that makes us give a damn about doing right. We do not fear God, and we do not fear society. We fear meaningless and pointless exercises in personal satiation without ever really finding something worth expending our lives upon.

Whatever lies after death, and whatever rules this universe, or does not, we must consider that our lives need both meaning and significance, meaning that we need a reason to suppose our actions have consequences that we care about. Without that balance, we have no reason to exist.

As metal returns from the land of meaninglessness (twee indiecore hipster schmaltz), we see the retro-fakers being shoved aside and a rise of people who are continuing the spirit of the past:

0 thoughts on “Metal: returning from the dead?”

  1. brutal slayer of christians, noble hessian warrior of death says:

    You forgot Teitanblood, Diocletian, Witchrist, Grave Miasma, Cruciamentum, Scythian, Repugnant, Revenge and many others. But I guess they’re too brutal for you.

  2. HIV+ Gay Lover says:

    And don’t forget Mastodon! They are brutal and heavy, perhaps the true inheritors of the European Classical tradition. Some might argue and say Lady Gaga is actually neo-classical genius but I say Mastodon is the heaviest metal that truly incorporates Nietzschean-Pagan values and Miltonic Romanticism in their transcendental soundscapes.

  3. post writer identifier says:

    In case anyone is wondering, yes the writer of this post is Prozak. it is quite obvious. Any of those bands are realy new though, except winterwolf, wich by thae way are also the lesser band in the list. kinda tells you something doesn’t it?

  4. Literally Franz Schubert says:

    Who cares that you were listening to me? Could it be any more obvious you used that as the first sentence for credibility? You could listen to the trout quintet all day and it won’t make metal any less for angry teenagers.

  5. Literally Franz Schubert says:

    Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a victorian sex party to attend to.

  6. Dethroned Christ says:

    Winterwolf and Repugnant are nothing but retro-rehashes.

  7. you know, to wash my mind of crappy death metal says:

    hummm, time to give that scream bloody gore of mine another spin

  8. think and talk about things that actually matter, and actually have value, not this stupid garbage says:

    yawn

  9. your values are inferior. you are out of touch with reality and productivity. give up and kill yourself. says:

    what he said

  10. at how proles like you get distracted by crappy nonsense instead of focusing in quality says:

    Shubert and Chuck Shuldiner are laughing at this in Heaven.

  11. @ Chuck Schuldiner laughing in heaven says:

    Thus proving that Chuck was a christian.

  12. LOL says:

    “at how proles like you get distracted by crappy nonsense instead of focusing in quality”

    I like how you say “proles” and you can’t even spell Schubert.

    What kind of fat, white college Republican shithead says proles as a pejorative?

  13. Vajazzle Prosack says:

    What kind of fat, white college Republican

    White people are horrible.

  14. sick of white people says:

    white people are racist, we need to kill them and rape their women for slavery reparations.

  15. Only Baroque is real says:

    Schubert is kind of prole-ish tbh.

  16. maynard macguffin says:

    Fuck all these bands. TENGGER CAVALRY.

  17. Parasite says:

    I think the said recordings in the post are good representations of ” comeback albums” that shows that the true metal spirit never dies. I think this post should have included bands like Truppensturm and Prosanctus Inferi, who are still young, and have already put out quality albums and are keeping metal fresh.

    Birth A.D is shit

  18. serious questioner says:

    Is it true that Vijay Prozak is an anal sex fiend who receives anal sex in return for giving good reviews to shitty bands like Birth A.D.?

  19. @serious questioner says:

    Yes, I believe you’re right. Brett and Jeff have some sort of gay fascination with each others genitals.

  20. the real Serious Questioner says:

    How many of you guys have true respect and admiration for SR Prozak?

    How many of you guys have been reading this site since 2000 or prior?

    I know I was…

  21. Queero MC Hungo says:

    My big dick is out and swinging, pointing at all potential victims. I rape male rectums! I enjoy watching them bleed!
    Feel the power of my tool, mesmerize at its beauty. Do it now!

  22. tribesman says:

    ALL HAIL QUEERO MC HUNGO THE GOD OF DEATH

  23. truth says:

    fags

  24. African tribesman in space says:

    I buttfuck the rings of Saturn

  25. Alpha Demon says:

    wasn’t Divine Eve supposed to have a new LP out by now?

  26. @ Alpha Demon says:

    Weren’t you supposed to have your anus buttered for me to fuck?

  27. omg morons says:

    so its another moron article AGFAIN go kill yourself and die. morons

  28. lol AGFAIN says:

    Birth A.D. is awesome. Only thrash band I’ve heard in the last decade that’s making quality musack.

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