The quality of non-metal music is going down, true, BUT the quality of metal music isn't going down in any way! Unless you only listen to what's on MTV.

In the UK we don't get any metal on the airwaves. I've had to scrounge from spotify and youtube (and of course here) to find some bands I really like.

Written by Angel Of Mercy on 07.12.2009 at 16:43

In the UK we don't get any metal on the airwaves. I've had to scrounge from spotify and youtube (and of course here) to find some bands I really like.

Don't worry- you are not the only; almost everyone has followed this path! And of course nowadays with so easy info-finding..piece of cake

Not so long ago "96- 2000" period as i recall was more difficult and you had to buy a couple of magazines to find information.

& so Bye - buY pocket money!

Written by treptolemus on 07.12.2009 at 19:28

Written by Angel Of Mercy on 07.12.2009 at 16:43

In the UK we don't get any metal on the airwaves. I've had to scrounge from spotify and youtube (and of course here) to find some bands I really like.

Don't worry- you are not the only; almost everyone has followed this path! And of course nowadays with so easy info-finding..piece of cake

Not so long ago "96- 2000" period as i recall was more difficult and you had to buy a couple of magazines to find information.

& so Bye - buY pocket money!

Yeah, but I hate all the mags here. We have Kerrang! (Grrr) and Metal Hammer and I think Terrorizer. I've only really read Metal Hammer but all that's in it is the really big bands. Not the new and upcoming ones.

The quality isn't always going down but:
-too many people keep on listening to the same bands over and over again without searching for new bands. If a band has no important name a lot of youngsters don't even try them out and so they stay ignorant about a lot of bands.

-the metal scène is oversaturrated in almost every subgenre

-for too many times the major and popular metal media decides what kind of bands are good or not and the readers/listeners follow them blindfolded. Often the labels behind these media pushes bands into popularity by giving these media a lot of money to advertise for the bands, to give them support... Metal became bussiness.

-too many so called important bands play on 'automatic pilot' instead of trying to improve... They know they will sell albums anyway, the will receive the support anyway.... Metallica's "St Anger" and the new Slayer are good examples....

-too many times people think that only the mainstream bands delivers awesome albums and contain the best musicians... The opposite is often true. There are so much first class unknown bands, working hard but not getting what they deserve....

------

On the other hand it is getting harder for bands to deliver more originality in their music so they mix genres and add more atmospheric ingrediënts.

-------


Nevertheless I still discover awesome unknown bands... To mention a few; Darkology, Future's End...

Written by Hellish Star on 07.12.2009 at 21:12

The quality isn't always going down but:
-too many people keep on listening to the same bands over and over again without searching for new bands. If a band has no important name a lot of youngsters don't even try them out and so they stay ignorant about a lot of bands.

-the metal scène is oversaturrated in almost every subgenre

-for too many times the major and popular metal media decides what kind of bands are good or not and the readers/listeners follow them blindfolded. Often the labels behind these media pushes bands into popularity by giving these media a lot of money to advertise for the bands, to give them support... Metal became bussiness.

-too many so called important bands play on 'automatic pilot' instead of trying to improve... They know they will sell albums anyway, the will receive the support anyway.... Metallica's "St Anger" and the new Slayer are good examples....

-too many times people think that only the mainstream bands delivers awesome albums and contain the best musicians... The opposite is often true. There are so much first class unknown bands, working hard but not getting what they deserve....

------

On the other hand it is getting harder for bands to deliver more originality in their music so they mix genres and add more atmospheric ingrediënts.

-------


Nevertheless I still discover awesome unknown bands... To mention a few; Darkology, Future's End...

totally agreed,,, thats the way everything works now.

misfortune for the talented bands they have to franchise themselves and sell there souls to the devil,,the label,,, and try to be like everything else to be popular and sell,, and then they forget it is music with a soul not olny guitar riffs or female fronted vocal

Try Crying Orchestra or Crying Orc n_n

It has the sound of a cold vast persian empire in a frozen world falling apart and being constructted in a psy (sci) fiction space.

The quality of music other than metal is becoming worse than crap nowadays, and agree that alot of new bands are not that good but still their are alot of great ones (Agalloch, Amon Amarth, Ayreon, Draconian, Ensiferum and the list goes on) and still some of the gods are still around Iron Maiden, Metallica

Agreed. It's very hard for a metal band to be original these days. Seems like the river of riffs is drying up. Sad really, that's why most metal songs sound identical for most part.

Written by Nicko's Nose on 07.12.2009 at 08:05

The quality of non-metal music is going down, true, BUT the quality of metal music isn't going down in any way! Unless you only listen to what's on MTV.

This statement is a massive LOL to me.

The truth is that it semms that the quallity of metal is going down a bit. but we will be able to completely see it in years from now. i think the reason for the weakening of the quallity is really simple: too much music is played and for every new musician/band who whants to differ from the maze the first challenge is not to recycle others ideas. but it is hard. a lot of stupid people take a guitar, experiment a bit and then they have a new band... awfull.

Written by Elio on 06.02.2010 at 11:10

Written by Nicko's Nose on 07.12.2009 at 08:05

The quality of non-metal music is going down, true, BUT the quality of metal music isn't going down in any way! Unless you only listen to what's on MTV.

This statement is a massive LOL to me.

yeah. agree. it's simply a matter of tastes and what you listen to.

for every sappy sugary top-40 pop group, there are 10 metal bands that bring nothing new to the table and sound just like their influences.

a thread like this kinda indicates how discerning and demanding a lot of metalheads are.

of course, not to pick on just power metal (which is the closest to pop, imo), same can be applied to pretty much any genre - there are fans who think every single release within the genre, particularly those that adhere to the same color by numbers as "those who came before" is a 9 or a 10.

the biggest difference between metal and pop is the fact that metal is considerably more diverse as a whole, so there is a lot more room for exploration. it's just up to bands to do something new rather than safe, and up to listenres to break out of the box.

Written by Elio on 06.02.2010 at 11:10

Written by Nicko's Nose on 07.12.2009 at 08:05

The quality of non-metal music is going down, true, BUT the quality of metal music isn't going down in any way! Unless you only listen to what's on MTV.

This statement is a massive LOL to me.

The truth can be funny.

Written by Nicko's Nose on 07.02.2010 at 01:04

The truth can be funny.

so can opinions.

Written by Nicko's Nose on 07.02.2010 at 01:04

Written by Elio on 06.02.2010 at 11:10

Written by Nicko's Nose on 07.12.2009 at 08:05

The quality of non-metal music is going down, true, BUT the quality of metal music isn't going down in any way! Unless you only listen to what's on MTV.

This statement is a massive LOL to me.

The truth can be funny.

So just because you like metal, this genre is still fresh like it was decades ago but other genres are shit since you don't like them? Now this is what I call a truth.

Written by Elio on 07.02.2010 at 11:02

Written by Nicko's Nose on 07.02.2010 at 01:04

Written by Elio on 06.02.2010 at 11:10

Written by Nicko's Nose on 07.12.2009 at 08:05

The quality of non-metal music is going down, true, BUT the quality of metal music isn't going down in any way! Unless you only listen to what's on MTV.

This statement is a massive LOL to me.

The truth can be funny.

So just because you like metal, this genre is still fresh like it was decades ago but other genres are shit since you don't like them? Now this is what I call a truth.

I dont agree completely but the truth is that before i started listening a lot more to metal i was listening a lot Radio and generally "music for the masses". i have to say that i find most of the music that is played today on the radio COMPLETELY SHIT. this is not because i changed preferences because i love allmost all my "old fav bands" and songs. and many of them were pop and stuff like that. i dont listen to them but i like them. but most of the new music really sounds bad. surely there are exceptions in the rule as always.

Written by Deadmeat on 07.02.2010 at 13:26

Written by Elio on 07.02.2010 at 11:02

Written by Nicko's Nose on 07.02.2010 at 01:04

Written by Elio on 06.02.2010 at 11:10

Written by Nicko's Nose on 07.12.2009 at 08:05

The quality of non-metal music is going down, true, BUT the quality of metal music isn't going down in any way! Unless you only listen to what's on MTV.

This statement is a massive LOL to me.

The truth can be funny.

So just because you like metal, this genre is still fresh like it was decades ago but other genres are shit since you don't like them? Now this is what I call a truth.

I dont agree completely but the truth is that before i started listening a lot more to metal i was listening a lot Radio and generally "music for the masses". i have to say that i find most of the music that is played today on the radio COMPLETELY SHIT. this is not because i changed preferences because i love allmost all my "old fav bands" and songs. and many of them were pop and stuff like that. i dont listen to them but i like them. but most of the new music really sounds bad. surely there are exceptions in the rule as always.

Well, we aren't supposed to listen to what's on MTV (may it be metal, pop or hip-hop) am I right?

Written by Elio on 07.02.2010 at 14:55

Well, we aren't supposed to listen to what's on MTV (may it be metal, pop or hip-hop) am I right?

on this you are right. i also agree.

Written by Angel Of Mercy on 07.12.2009 at 20:41

Written by treptolemus on 07.12.2009 at 19:28

Written by Angel Of Mercy on 07.12.2009 at 16:43

In the UK we don't get any metal on the airwaves. I've had to scrounge from spotify and youtube (and of course here) to find some bands I really like.

Don't worry- you are not the only; almost everyone has followed this path! And of course nowadays with so easy info-finding..piece of cake

Not so long ago "96- 2000" period as i recall was more difficult and you had to buy a couple of magazines to find information.

& so Bye - buY pocket money!

Yeah, but I hate all the mags here. We have Kerrang! (Grrr) and Metal Hammer and I think Terrorizer. I've only really read Metal Hammer but all that's in it is the really big bands. Not the new and upcoming ones.

Metal Hammer and Kerrangs sucks but terrorizer is a very decent megazine

Written by Elio on 07.02.2010 at 11:02

Written by Nicko's Nose on 07.02.2010 at 01:04

Written by Elio on 06.02.2010 at 11:10

Written by Nicko's Nose on 07.12.2009 at 08:05

The quality of non-metal music is going down, true, BUT the quality of metal music isn't going down in any way! Unless you only listen to what's on MTV.

This statement is a massive LOL to me.

The truth can be funny.

So just because you like metal, this genre is still fresh like it was decades ago but other genres are shit since you don't like them? Now this is what I call a truth.

Wait... If I understand well, someone who listens to hundreds of non-metal bands (including pop bands) think that all non-metal genres are shit?

I have a different angle on this...

Yes music quality is going down, we all go back to listening the older stuff in our favourite bands' discographies but I think this also has an effect on what people currently consider good.

Take this site for example....simply the way people rate albums. Fair enough its all about opinion, but people also tend to rate mediocrity as great nowadays. Perhaps it is because our standards have dropped....the rating system even though i think its a pile of shit gives you an insight into what people are content with.

Ive seen some people on this site have an average rating of like 9/10 for over 1000 albums which I think is bizarre and completely ridiculous. And I feel thats where one of the big problems lie...many people dont listen to metal in a critical way anymore. Perhaps they have a wide taste in music but even so....if you regard basically EVERYTHING you hear as fantastic then I think you are absolutely full of shit.

Because you need a frame of reference and its exactly that attitude that allows mediocrity in metal to prosper. People buy albums for the sake of liking a band regardless of what they do or hold bands in high regard even though they show no interest in becoming better.

So as much as we want to say metal is on the decline, many of us are the reason for it. We praise everything even if its shit.....if it sounds "ok" we still think its fantastic because we love "death metal or anything heavy" (as an example). And thats the problem we face on this site (and in general) because within Metal and all its diversity of styles and genres there will always be clashes between the blackmetal fans and the powermetal fans because we're all so fucking precious and opinionated about what WE think is right....throw in a bunch of fanboys or "elites" and you have a shit-slinging fest.

Unfortunately one of the characteristics of metal lovers is that we're also the most stubborn idiots in the world and in between that there are some who dont formulise an opinion on what they like, and for that reason like EVERYTHING and ANYTHING - and all of those combined result in the same bands bringing out the same shit over and over again because they know the die-hard fans wont want it any other way and if they do change, there will always be the young and uneducated new fans who will gobble anything up.

Agree with most of you. Here's a new and upcoming band who's not a Century Media cookie cutter artist. WARNING! Shameless plug! lol! http://www.reverbnation.com/naraka

I'm getting a little tired of some sub-genres of metal nowadays. Mainly death, black and trash since most really don't provide anything new. Doom and any other slow tempo extreme genres are even worse. The only thing that gets me going is progressive and avant-garde...and more and more I'm being drawn to other types of alternative music like jazz fusion.

New era of commercialism, massive bands trying to create at least one element that sounds unique and (as Valaskjalf noted) fans are half to blame. All valid arguments to this notion of decline....but let me present a new one - it had to happen. In fact, it is a reflection of today's society. Wether in fashion or art we're mixing several styles from the past and when there's something new you can't tell exactly what it is...we always correlate it to past artists/bands. We are being progressive but I also a little too analytical on giving a chance to a style that looks or sounds unique. The past styles were also influences of something previous, so we are simply carrying that formula still...there's no other way around this.

In regards to a decline in quality of music, perhaps... just perhaps... this supposed decline is the result of the information age... i mean us old folks remember the olden days before algore invented the internet.

sure, the were hundreds if not thousands of punk bands in the 80's. any 3-4 kids who wanted to form a band likely did so... but not that anybody was ever really exposed to them. in most cases, their reach was probably seldom greater than their own immediate neighborhood, club, or high school. only the biggest/best really got anywhere...

nowadays thanks to the interweb everyone has a global launching pad to export something that should never have escaped their garage/basement to anyone with access to the www.

ultimately, i think there isn't a decline in quality of music so much as we are all now more aware of the piles of mediocrity out there.


finally, there is the matter of tastes.

as one person has pointed out, folks tend to overrate anything put to tape. there are an awful lot of metalheads on this site who i honestly think you could blindfold upon entry to the record store, guide them to the metal section, have them select five disks at random off the rack, and all would be a 9 or 10.

additionally, tastes impact what one has to say about music.

the poster above me basically doesn't seem to like death, thrash, black, or (extreme/trad) doom... so therefore has all but written them off as a source of "something new."

i'd argue that despite a slew of color-by-numbers bands within the genres, black and doom (particularly extreme) have a lot more going on and innovation in them than most other metal genres.

but because they don't fall within his realm of tastes, they are all but written off entirely.

so individual tastes, preferences, and prejudices will also jaundice our eyes in regards to judging quality of music.

I think this debate does not adress the good question. First the quality of music in general is certainly not going down, there is more genres, more musicians, more experimentation and more access to the audience (thanks to the internet) than ever, so maybe the 'good music' (AND THIS TERM IS VERY SUBJECTIVE) becomes diluted in a sea of music you don't like according to your individual tastes.
I don't understand how someone can come up and say:'The music we hear today is shit compared to the music of the past!, who are you to say that? Are you a god that has universal knowledge of what is good and what's not good? Just choose music according to your tastes, theres a hundred million good bands out there, metal and non-metal waiting for you to discover them.
This is a non-debate, cause tastes are not to be discussed: someone who likes pop music won't stop listening to this kind of music just because you say it's shit...So your just loosing your precious time with this kind of debate. No one here can say if the quality of music is going down because that involves too much subjectivity. Maybe some bands are repeating themselves, but you have the choice...Just stop listening them and move on to other bands, that's simple!

Hooking into the last two posts I agree with the music quality NOT going down.

In the Eighties and early nineties and the ages before that not everyone could release something unlike nowadays. And even in the eighties there were loads of CRAP metal bands who never got a record deal.
Nowadays anyone can release anything on a cd-r and distribute it or spread it via the www. and make it look like a proper recording wheer in fact it is the same as the old demo cassette recordings off yore.
You people really don't know want to know how many totally shitty demo recordings I have of the times when you think metal was better.

Looking at how metal has evolved I would even dare to say metal nowadays is in a MUCH HEALTHIER STATE than it it ever was.

But because most of you just download you don't see that.

Personally, i don't think the quality of music i going down. Every person has a different taste in music so every band can be liked by somebody. I agree that many people are very indecisive about what bands they like and everything but i don't think that effects the bands that we hear.

There is definitely a larger selection of music than in the past, which means there are going to be many more diverse bands that a lot of people won't like but will also to lead to many better bands.

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 10.02.2010 at 22:59

You people really don't know want to know how many totally shitty demo recordings I have of the times when you think metal was better.

i agree with this phrase a lot.

Check out Orphaned Land's last album The Never Ending Way Of ORwarriOR. Generally I'll hype everytihng that is produces by Steven Wilson.

Listen to Ulver. It'll change you forever. But keep an open mind or you'll miss it.