If you have been listening to metal for as long as I have, or even longer in the case of many readers out there, then there comes that time when you look around and realize that you crave something more, something different, something new. You begin to want something that you haven’t quite heard before, something original. There are a group of listeners out there who feel that every release worth talking about must be cutting edge and entirely different than any other band, another camp of metalheads don’t care or even want anything new, they just want something that sounds safe and comfortable without pushing their personal boundaries, and then there is another group of listeners (the majority in my opinion), including me, who incorporate both aspects of the rival groups. What constitutes something as unique and original? Sure, bands out there now can blend certain musical ventures into one style such as Symphonic Black Metal or Neoclassical Power Metal but can you really label these genres as boundary pushers? It seems to me that the majority of the metal genres that we listen to today originated ten or more years ago and we have just been refining the original structures, sometimes to the point of stagnation and cookie cutter generic clones.

I think it is both sad and amusing, mostly sad, when I take someone (note I said someone, not everyone) who has only been exposed to new bands such as Sonata Arctica or Primal Fear and then show them the originators, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. I have been greeted with responses such as, “Oh this is so gay, it’s old man rock,” and when I stare at them baffled and inform them that Iron Maiden is the greatest metal band in the world they just look confused. I have also played Keeper of the Seven Keys part II so someone who has only heard Heavenly or Edguy and it doesn’t move them, they just seem to take it in as if it were just another Power Metal album. At moments like that I am glad that I got into the genres of metal that I love by way of the classics, the originators. My first heavy metal album was Iron Maiden’s Live After Death, my first Judas Priest cd was Painkiller, my first Power Metal album was Helloween’s Keeper of the Seven Keys part II, my first real Melodic Hard Rock album was Pretty Maids’ Future World (on tape nonetheless) and my first melodic death metal experience was Punish My Heaven at one of my friend’s house. I think this is the way that it should be, someone shouldn’t hear At the Gates clone number 547 like Black Dahlia Murder or In Thy Dreams, and then listen to Slaughter of the Soul or Skydancer and then scoff at how “dated this shit sounds.” If you can’t listen to who pioneered the genres of metal that you are a fan of then you don’t truly understand your music.

As for the camp that has to have everything be some new groundbreaking sound that has never been heard before by human ears, well I have this to say. If every cd had to be original then, as my friend put it best, someone would release a cd of a guy farting into a saxophone while someone uses a placenta to run on their guitar strings and another guy would grunt and that would be called the musical milestone of the millennium. Progressive Metal walks this very fine line between fresh and unique and self loving wanktastic drivel. Take some of the “leaders” of the genre as an example. Evergrey manages to blend a dark oppressive atmosphere with power, melody and a high degree of technicality without dissolving into self loving wankery. On the other hand Spiral Architect is as bad as it gets when it comes to wank. I can’t even go from highly technical acts like Zero Hour or Power of Omens to Spiral Architect, any sense of enjoyment is rendered null and void by tasteless and mindless doodling. Then there are groups such as Pagan’s Mind who are very talented, and highly enjoyable but they seem to want to make Images and Words part II. I really don’t mind this when I am in the mood for something other than Pull Me Under, Wait for Sleep, or Surrounded for the umpteenth time then Celestial Entrance satisfies my Progressive Power Metal fix but I know at the same time that other that along with being enjoyable, this album won’t be a metal milestone in fifteen years.

So what is better here, originality or enjoyability? If you actually feel bad for liking a generic band than you have some problems. A band’s shortcomings in the originality department shouldn’t keep you from liking them if they can play damn good, (Power Quest has been spinning for awhile now in my player) but also realize that they aren’t contributing to the advancement of the scene and you shouldn’t over populate your collection with the same third and fourth tier groups. Same goes for the people out there who are the most extreme and cutting edge. Sure, you might like the band that everyone else despises because you are so much more musically enlightened than they are but then again, it must be lonely sitting there listening to the Sheistmutters farting away on their saxophones while you rock out to that bongo solo and knowing theres all of three other people in the world that have their demo. People should have a balanced mix between bands that have pushed the boundaries and created the genres that we all know and love today as well as having the best new bands out there that have whichever genre you enjoy the most down to a T.