Metal Reviews

Blackgaze! Djent! Trad metal revival! Who started the trends that are going strongest these days?

Maiden with NWOBHM. Still going strong. Sabbath with Bluesy Doom.

No idea how I'd answer that noodles, everything seems so stratified and most stuff I like isn't very popular right now.

that Djent shit really caught on in the last 2 years... Meshuggah i guess would make such a list. can't stand it, though.

and deathcore too, but i can't name who started that.

a lot of stuff in modern metal disappoints me, i hate djent, i hate pig squeals, i hate slow music (all this sludge influence, Mastodon are also very influential today - they are good, their clones not so much), hate long songs, ugh.

Bands that came to mind for me:

Converge - If you look at Deathwish releases and albums Kurt Ballou produced it's like they've created a little blob of stuff that sounds quite a bit like them.

Meshuggah - djent has hit in a big way the last few years.

Agalloch/Drudkh seem like they've shaped nowadays black metal the most.

Mastodon seem like they opened the door for Kylsea, KEN Mode and the like to catch on.

Although the popularity of a lot of the sludge/black metal/hardcore might have more to do with that being the kind of metal that Pitchfork decided to endorse.

Neurosis, Necrophagist, and The Dillinger Escape Plan also come to mind although I have a feeling the trends they spawned were more 5-10 years ago things.

I knew I had misunderstood the question. Tool, Ihsahn, Enslaved, Behemoth, Deathspell Omega.

tDEP for sure, there was a ton of that math metal stuff around the same time the melodeath explosion came along between i think 2002 and 2005?

Necrophagist i would say are very influential even today. sometimes i feel tech death has replaced "normal death" and in a few years it'll be the norm. death metal will have to be referred to as old school death metal or death/thrash, accordingly.

Portal/Mitochrondrion type oddly structured death metal seems popular now, and I do like a lot of it, including some followers in that style like Abyssal.

What group of assholes inspired a bunch of jackoffs to call hardcore with harsh vocals with technical guitars "progressive metal" despite that already being well established?

Yeah, that band sucks dick and I don't think it's Opeth's fault. That actually is prog metal, but with DM vocals.

Yes, Opeth can be blamed for many other things instead.

Between the Buried and Me?

I hear lots of bands that have a similar sound to them (Sikth, Protest the Hero come to mind although they're fairly unique in their own right) but not as many that have their songwriting style (neither do 10 minute songs regularly).

Dream Theater, Dark Tranquillity and Katatonia come to mind.

Pfff. Influencing what?

A strong case can easily be made for Dark Tranquillity and Katatonia, both Pioneered a sound that has been copied, emulated countless number of times. As for Dream Theater they are the torch bearers of Prog Metal with a long enduring and successful career.

Dark Tranquillity: Basically any melodeth band such as Insomnium, Omnium Gatherum, Kalmah, Scar Symmetry and many metal core bands.

Katatonia: bands like rapture, daylight dies, Novembers Doom, Novembre, Swallow The Sun, Agalloch, October Falls, Forgotten Tomb, Wyrd etc..

Dream Theater : bands like Protest The Hero, Between The Burried and Me, Symphony X, Evergrey