Ok well its simply a thing i was thinking about.

We all know how music has progressed, Metal didnt just begin, it was blended into rock by bands mainly from the 70's, and now is its own genre. It became big and since the mid 90's, has really evolved into a diverse genre. There is Metal bands with influences from ALL styles of music, each taking their own progression with their sound. Other genres have done this too, but we really do not know about it, we are only talking about Metal.

By the present stage, do you ever wonder, how much more can Metal progress? Will bands become unoriginal? Maybe they will take music to a new level we dont know about yet?

Post away with your thoughts, im keen for opinions.

This is really hard to think about, or to try to figure out. From my point of view not being a musician I wouldn't know what to think specifically in terms of musical writing, I mean, each band has their own methods for writing their music and looking for new stuff to do, me instead don't know about that.

Now, I think the situation is different in terms of lyrical writing. As we know a lot of bands write thier songs based on peronsal experiences, on things that happen in the world, or simply about new stories or things they would like to talk about. There are many things that you can write about and many things that can induce you to do it in many different ways. There's a lot of roads to travel here still.

So I think that in terms of lyric writing there's lot to explore and evolve, there's a whole lot more to say to the world. In terms of the music itself, I wouldn't know... I leave this to the musicians

Good response, thank you. You are very right with the lyrics part.

I think the sounds are rather limited when bands don't go beyong the typical boundaries of older metal bands, which really only featured Guitar(s), Drums, Bass and Vocals...

With regards to what has happened so far and seems to be a pattern with some bands now, is more experimentation in their sound and not limiting themselves to their original formulas, for example, when Adagio changed their vocalist. It led them to explore adding death-like vocals to the music on "Dominate", creating an entirely different sdound, albeit somewhat reminiscent of already existent bands in other genres, they managed to still create a unique sound, as have other bands, in experimenting.

I can imagine metal becoming stale if bands refuse to be innovative. Fans will eventually complain, stop listening to any band and give up any thread of hope they once had about any particular band's future, but for some in the past, it was the opposite (ie. Megadeth). There also has to be a limit as to how experimental a band can be before their intentions become obscured by layers of sounds that might not have been necessary, although without them, they would have produced a generic piece of rubbish. Some bands might not be able to do this though, which could become another obstacle for metal to progress beyond. So, the chance to progress is there, but so is the chance for bands to become stagnant and/or repetitive.

@tulkas: You summarised the lyrical aspects quite nicely, so I don't believe I need to address that

@ Dark Cornatus: Good, thought provoking question, by the way!

I personally think that it will eventually go the full circle. What I mean by this is that bands will continue pushing the boundaries of each subgenre so much that people won't really remember what the style was like originally. Then the reverse evolution will occur, with it being 'new' to sound 'old'. I don't know how much sense that makes to the rest of you, but that's what I reckon will happen in the long-term.

As for immediate experimentation, regardless of what the fans want to hear bands will continue changing their sound. People would be happiest if Iron Maiden just rehashed their early- to mid-80s albums again and again, but the band refuse to do that, preferring instead to continue to push their own boundaries. As long as musicians continue making music to please themselves, rather than only the audience, we will see an evolution.

As people change, so will their take on music. The only way to really know the direction of a band or genre is by knowing what the artists are thinking of doing next.

this is something that i have always thought about. metal has changed drastically since it started, the many generes created and still being created allow us to know for sure that new shit will be out there.

first you have the kind of old genere of Technical metal such as Meshuggah and Mastodon. these bands have a "new" type of metal in them. this was slowly taken out of death and thrash/speed metal and became one of the most miss understood and best divided genere out there.

take for example the last known genere NU-Metal, bands like Korn, Limp Biskit, POD, or even Linkin Park and as we all know Metallica (St. Anger). even though all these bands have a different sound and feel they all have the same concept. and they all have some good in them, (i for one think Korn is one the greatest new bands out there)

what would be up next, how about this: techno Metal, , laugh as much as you want, but some bands have tried this and have succeded (meshuggah have a version of their song in full techno style, and it fucking rocks), Megadeth had a song starting in techno style as well.

but as all generes of metal, it takes alot of time and tests to get the right one out there. Limp Bozkit, Linkin Park, POD have slowly died out, korn on the other hand has still rocked hard and hasnt changed alot isnce they started.

techno metal?

change is hard to accept, and takes time. that is why alot of metalheads stick to one genere, because it speaks to them and will always speak to them, and they knwo that no matter what that genere wont change.

More good comments. You all have good points.

The Berzerker have already done Techno Metal to a degree though?

I now see what you other people mean about the music. If I understand well there are various posibilites of what could happen, for instance trying out new musical mixtures SETHULHU said about techno metal. I actually agree with him in terms of accepting the changes within the music we like, even if it's just a change within a band. But as far as we've seen I think there could be something good coming out of this mix with techno, I think it's just going through the right way not putting techo firstly and metal behind, but just adding some techo aspects... well, you get my point.

The other could be changing stuff within the band, like trying out different types of vocalists or types of muscians, permitting then the band to explore plces where they wouldn't been able to go before. I actually like this one, even though sometimes us the fans get mad when a member leaves the band for whatever reason it may have been. But if we look at this in a good way, we could probably see this as a new or different option for the band.

From all this that's been said, I now belive that there's still some place for the music to evolve. I think it's probably trying to take some risks within the bands to try to explore musical aspects that they're afraid to try for the fear of changing the sound that thier fans like, and loosing them...

It's a matter of having the balls to do this stuff I guess

Written by tulkas on 12.03.2007 at 02:37

It's a matter of having the balls to do this stuff I guess

It's also a matter of metalheads appreciating new/different sounds and content within metal, too

@Dark Cornatus: Well I'd say that those elements are a bit more Industrial than techno. It's just a kind of fast beat.

Anyway, I think that metal will most likely become more and more original. It's obviously diversified from it's beginnings, and I think it will just continue to do so. There's the fact that eventually everything has to be done, but there are just more and more elements that are being added to metal. It'll be interesting to see what new, future styles will form as well as future bands and their current style sounds.

Written by Raiden on 12.03.2007 at 12:33

@Dark Cornatus: Well I'd say that those elements are a bit more Industrial than techno. It's just a kind of fast beat.

Anyway, I think that metal will most likely become more and more original. It's obviously diversified from it's beginnings, and I think it will just continue to do so. There's the fact that eventually everything has to be done, but there are just more and more elements that are being added to metal. It'll be interesting to see what new, future styles will form as well as future bands and their current style sounds.

I know, i meant it as they have touched into that side of things, but yeh.

I think you have a strong point, i mean its not as if everything has been done yet, there is still room to play with here. What i do see happening though, is the bands who are not so original with writing, becoming more and more, hence making it difficult to find those bands that have gone the hard yards with creativity. Im not saying this will happen, but it is a good chance.

Written by Dark Cornatus on 12.03.2007 at 13:23

Written by Raiden on 12.03.2007 at 12:33

@Dark Cornatus: Well I'd say that those elements are a bit more Industrial than techno. It's just a kind of fast beat.

Anyway, I think that metal will most likely become more and more original. It's obviously diversified from it's beginnings, and I think it will just continue to do so. There's the fact that eventually everything has to be done, but there are just more and more elements that are being added to metal. It'll be interesting to see what new, future styles will form as well as future bands and their current style sounds.

I know, i meant it as they have touched into that side of things, but yeh.

I think you have a strong point, i mean its not as if everything has been done yet, there is still room to play with here. What i do see happening though, is the bands who are not so original with writing, becoming more and more, hence making it difficult to find those bands that have gone the hard yards with creativity. Im not saying this will happen, but it is a good chance.

Yeah, I understand what you were saying.

I agree with you about uncreative bands. Eventually all that can be creative with traditional instruments will run out. Or how they traditionally sound at least. The same, repeated formula will appeal to some, and will sometimes be popular, but some creative and original bands might be labelled as "experimental" or whatever.

Really really interesting question. Well, I think that music is really wide, there will always be new things to create, to experiment with, but what I see nowadays is that some new bands are really similar to the known ones, and some good bands that were really original in their early times, are now repeating theirselves, so...
I think that now, the bands should be careful with it, otherwise, metal might become boring, not succesful, though to create new things... might not be easy
Another thing that was said is the change, it is really important to accept the change and trying to do new things is completely necessary

I think all the big steps in Metal's evolution already have been taken, very soon we will come to an end and most Metal will be unoriginal.
What's left in it's progress is the rest of genre mixes we haven't heard yet.

I don't really think its that original now. Every band is trying to be something they're not and its really annoying.

I believe that metal will become more original in the future. It may slowly progress, but I definitely think more originality will be incorporated and bands will begin experimenting with different styles of music and become more creative. I don't think we might have as many purely death metal or power metal bands, but instead I think bands will begin to integrate all these different styles into something innovative.

Over a span of 3-4 decades, metal has been able to evolve immensely. I don't see why it should come to end now. I think that with the progression of metal there will be a number of new and innovative bands and of course, there will still be the collection of clone bands. Now, some of today's generation metal fans might not be so accepting of new metal in a few years time. However, the music in my opinion will continue to grow and introduce new fans as we advance, despite whether older fans like the direction it heads in or not. We just need to be open-minded and accepting of new styles and diversity. Metal is a very versatile genre. New instruments that are used regularly in metal nowadays can be used creating new sounds and such. And for the lyrics department, I think that's been depicted very well already. So as far as I'm concerned, metal will continue to grow for many years from now on.

Written by SETHULHU on 11.03.2007 at 11:03

this is something that i have always thought about. metal has changed drastically since it started, the many generes created and still being created allow us to know for sure that new shit will be out there.

This is it. I think that there are plenty of genres, sub-genres and mixes of genres, and for sure there will come more. This doesn't only apply to metal.

Well, in the 70's there was basically only Heavy Metal (maybe a few other styles of metal) and now there are, well, alot more styles . I think there will only be more and more types of metal because there are more and more bands all trying to be original, but probably future metal might involve stupid sound effects . Unfourtunatly I think the first types of metal will die out, for example I don't think we'll ever see other bands playing like Black Sabbath or Led Zeplin

Reading the posts above, I concluded that it's all about periods that everything (In this case, Metal) pass through. At the beginning it was original, nowadays like I said before some metal bands are repeating theirselves and some new ones try to be like the original or older ones... but it can be really good too, because it can incite the bands to create new things, to experiment with other things, so that metal won't be boring and unsuccesful, that might be what is happening now

Easy answer, the original sounding bands will rise above the overdone crap, like Bodom or Opeth, they both brought in a unique sound and thats why there two of the biggest(ish) metal bands out there today.Other bands will try to follow them just as the earlier metal bands follow Black Sabbath creating new waves of metal, then that will become overused so new unique bands will come out, becoming a very big cycle. And once there absolutely nothing left to say in metal......well hopefully ill be dead.

Written by Doc G. on 13.03.2007 at 22:34

Easy answer, the original sounding bands will rise above the overdone crap, like Bodom or Opeth, they both brought in a unique sound and thats why there two of the biggest(ish) metal bands out there today.Other bands will try to follow them just as the earlier metal bands follow Black Sabbath creating new waves of metal, then that will become overused so new unique bands will come out, becoming a very big cycle. And once there absolutely nothing left to say in metal......well hopefully ill be dead.

What makes you so sure there will eventually be nothing left to say?

Written by Guest on 14.03.2007 at 06:26

Written by Doc G. on 13.03.2007 at 22:34

Easy answer, the original sounding bands will rise above the overdone crap, like Bodom or Opeth, they both brought in a unique sound and thats why there two of the biggest(ish) metal bands out there today.Other bands will try to follow them just as the earlier metal bands follow Black Sabbath creating new waves of metal, then that will become overused so new unique bands will come out, becoming a very big cycle. And once there absolutely nothing left to say in metal......well hopefully ill be dead.

What makes you so sure there will eventually be nothing left to say?

hmm, im not sure actually, I guess I shouldve put 'if' somewhere in there.

Future metal might not be very original.
Metal has expanded alot since it evolved, and the number of listeners and musicians has also increased in this genre: so, it is likely that people who don't understand what metal actually is all about also tend to increase, as a result metal goes far from original.
-core infiltration and experimental attempts in metal are increasing, and the sad part is, people confuse them to be some other genre of metal.
everything declines, and metal will certainly not be an exception so, the day when there will be less original metal bands will come. But the original bands should be remembered forever.

Metal Is Forever


Free Choices
Always had the chance to play the music you like
True and faithful
You support this sound and rhythm
You back up it´s future from deep in your heart

Faster beats are pounding
While the fans are shouting

Metal is forever
In every single matter
Metal is forever
Nations come togheter

Excited - when you go to see a show
Your feelings arise
Commited - You became a fan forever
Knowing the words you sing all the tunes

Faster beats are pounding
Glowing tubes - high sounding

Metal is forever
In every single matter
Metal is forever
Nations come togheter

Faster beats are pouding
Screaming voices - howling

Metal is forever
In every single matter
Metal is forever
Nations come togheter


I think Metal is alot like death and taxes, in that it will always be around. If there are fans and muscians it is sure as hell not going anywhere. I feel this genre will continue progrssing into more complex structures that we havent seen yet.

Musicians will put a new spin on things that we have already seen.

Written by Guest on 17.03.2007 at 01:40

Metal Is Forever


Free Choices
Always had the chance to play the music you like
True and faithful
You support this sound and rhythm
You back up it´s future from deep in your heart

Faster beats are pounding
While the fans are shouting

Metal is forever
In every single matter
Metal is forever
Nations come togheter

Excited - when you go to see a show
Your feelings arise
Commited - You became a fan forever
Knowing the words you sing all the tunes

Faster beats are pounding
Glowing tubes - high sounding

Metal is forever
In every single matter
Metal is forever
Nations come togheter

Faster beats are pouding
Screaming voices - howling

Metal is forever
In every single matter
Metal is forever
Nations come togheter


I think Metal is alot like death and taxes, in that it will always be around. If there are fans and muscians it is sure as hell not going anywhere. I feel this genre will continue progrssing into more complex structures that we havent seen yet.

Musicians will put a new spin on things that we have already seen.

I really dig the Primal Fear inclusion in this thread, that was awesome.

I think there is lots and lots of room left for originality in metal for a long time to come! A lot of this originality, I'm guessing, will come from more new fusions with other styles of music. 10 years ago I never, ever, EVER would have guessed that there could be a folk-metal combination, or a jazz-metal combination, etc., and now look! When I tell my friends about folk metal they look at me like I just appeared from outer space... There's another thread here about "impossible" combinations of metal with other genres, but all it takes is one creative musician to invent such a combination, and a whole sub-genre is born. Heh I look at those listings of "impossible" combinations and I can practically hear the possibilities in my head, if only I had the time and equipment and technical skill to execute it...

And I can't imagine this ever coming to an end - why? Because new genres are always in the making. Twenty years from now there will be some completely new style of music we can't yet imagine, and some innovative musicians will combine it with metal. There is also plenty more traditional music that has not yet been combined with metal, but certainly can be. And speaking of techno, there are a lot of electronic sub-genres that would make for very interesting metal-electronic fusions. The possibilities are endless. There will always be bands making unoriginal metal for the listeners who long for "the good old days" but then there will always be adventurous bands concocting new metal for adventurous listeners...

And if you still have doubts, just remember this... in the late 19th century, the U.S. Patent Office is known to have said "all that can possibly be invented, has already been invented."

Metal will never go away ofcourse. But for the matter "Heavy Metal" as a MUSIC-genre it may be difficult to awnser. This i think because i ask myself how "original" it will stay (as in; true to the genre). I to think it will evolve and that there will be more sub genres. What i do not hope is that the "original" metal will fade away. Metal is more and more mixing with other genre's...Maybe in the future there will be an entire new music genre which evolved from Heavy metal like Heavy Metal evolved from traditional hard rock/bleus. So if i look to the topic title....original or not? i dont know. I think its a matter of how far you can look in the future. I think we all have to see ourselves.

Im now 22 years old, when im 50 music has changed Immensively. My father grew up with Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin and could never guessed there were going to be "Death Metal" or "Folk Metal". Still these sub genres we consider original. And so most of the 1ste generation thinks this way i guess...but do they think metalcore/hardcore/new metal/math metal bands "original"? I dont know....i think this is also a matter of generations. If i have kids when im older they might think its "original" and maybe i think its not. It also depends on which genre's are mixed and what kind of new techniques are involved in music making.

For me: as long in the future there will be band-formations with a guitar player (1 or 2)playing also a solo now and then, a drummer (not a f*cking slipknot clown with pans an bins) and a bass player and singer who sings and not is a freaking semi-rapper....as long as there are NO dj's involved.....aslong it wil stay true to its own genre and not mix with HipHop,trance, techno or other shit like that.....metal in the future will be original. Only then its stil HEAVY Metal, like Black Sabbath has introduced it.

This is difficult to answer, as I do not possess the power of foresight. Let's just say that we just have to wait for what the future holds for us.

think about bands like Priest who have changed their style a total of 7 times in their lifetime. also you might not realise it, but most people were saying that inventions have reached the limit back in 1900, right before the airplane came along. i do realise there are only 12 notes on the music scale, but there will always be something different that metal music will come up with, like that a capella metal band.

The world is big enough and our minds are creative enough to create infinite combinations, as we grow up, we develop skills and consolitate our thoughts, those ways are infintely varied, so I think, metal (as another forms of art) won't never get old.