I just listened to the new EVANESCENCE last week. The album is called “The Bitter Truth.” It’s not bad. It’s more than I expected from them and/or her. She is a great singer, but I am not sure if her vocals work for “really, heavy” music over the alternative pop metal she has been doing. I really had not listened to the band since they broke out in 2004.
“Part of Me” is a great song and in tone the album is a little bit heavier than the band’s previous works. Like, if you take what she was doing back in the day and compare it to now, it is much more heavier a record. So, I would say less pop and more rock, but it’s still very tamed down by today’s “Heavy” Metal Standards. It’s not Jinjer. No one is Jinjer…
However, this got me to thinking about music, metal and classifications. We call these Genres and Subgenres. If you all have not seen “A Headbanger’s Journey.” I recommend you all see it. It’s great. A little dated by today’s standards as metal had grown so much and changed in the past 10-15 years that it is hard to have conversations about what has/is happening to metal since the turn of the century…
It’s a tough thing to label what is really Heavy Metal and what is Pop/Rock. I am stickler for labeling bands in the correct subgenre of Heavy Metal. It’s all “Heavy Metal” and Pop/Rock is a subgenre of the main genre of Heavy Metal. This perspective is if you are the Metalhead and are creating an outline and/or timeline of bands in Heavy Metal and what Subgenre of Heavy Metal you believe they belong in.
This is completely objective. It’s all opinion based, but there are some rules for saying a band is this style or another style. Criteria is really the only way someone can say this is that and that is this, within Heavy Metal labeling.
Take Nu Metal as an example. What is Nu Metal? The easy answer is Nü Metal is Rap Metal… Well, that is a very incomplete definition, but to someone that doesn’t know metal all that well or at all that would be an “alright” answer; I’ll except it… A better definition of Nu Metal is, taken from Wiki: (sometimes stylized as nü-metal) is a subgenre of alternative metal that combines elements of heavy metal music with elements of other music genres such as hip hop, alternative rock, funk, industrial, and grunge.
This definition actually works for me, accept it is missing one very important part of the conversation about criteria. That is time period. Nü Metal isn’t just all those things in the Wiki take, it is also talking about a specific time period from 1993-2003. Now this doesn’t mean that some bands weren’t doing Nü Metal’ish / Fusion Rock based material before 1993. Red Hot Chili Peppers and Faith No More had all sorts of stuff in their music that could include them in the Nü Metal subgenre, also what about Stuck Mojo? Hip/Hop and Hardcore, yeah, they were doing it too.
However, for the most part, most would say 1993 is a fair estimate for a start date as to when you started seeing bands that would be later labeled as Nü Metal started to show up. However, by 2003 the style was in decline and you had a lot of bands from the subgenre either flat out change their sound or packed it in as a band and went onto do other things. Like father all those babies they made on the road, backstage and on the bus…
Now, Nü Metal was still doing things after 2003, but was actually anyone listening to these bands anymore? All the bands that had one or two LPs come out, had a few singles on the radio and were/are still actively touring bands… Yeah, those bands… Did anyone even notice them still around or gone for that matter? I think not.
Flaw, 12 Stones, hell, even Finger Eleven? Anyone screaming for new records from these bands? If so, then Nü Metal is still around, its not, and hasn’t been for a long while now. Post-Nü Metal for me started around 2005…
This is sort of important as some of the bands we listen to today were not even out yet and there has been a resurgence in the style. However, I cannot call it Nü Metal as Nü Metal also has the time period as part of the criteria. I am calling this Nü Wave Metal, but it’s all objective. Call it whatever you want to, but if you get into a conversation about this topic with someone that is very passionate about Heavy Metal Culture, they might embarrass you and take your girl or guy. Now, that’s metal hahhahahah….
Some examples of subgenres:
Metallica… From Genre.Fandom.com; Metallica is considered: Thrash Metal, Progressive Metal, Hard Rock, Alternative Metal. They can be put into other categories, but for the sake of not giving anyone a headache we will just stick with this. It should be noted that a lot of Metallica’s labeling changes from album to album. It is widely argued that Metallica’s 1st 4 LPs were straight up Thrash while everything after “…And Justice For All” is not Thrash Metal. I tend to agree… To me, though, Metallica is still a Heavy Metal band.
Another Example is Lamb of God. Taken from Google; Lamb of God is considered: New Wave of American Heavy Metal, Groove Metal, Death Metal, Thrash Metal, Metalcore, Black Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Grindcore, Alternative Metal, Speed Metal…
For me, Google can be hit or miss. They got 2 right out of gates. I agree that Lamb of God is “New Wave of American Heavy Metal” and “Groove Metal.” Personally, the others are a stretch. I guess they fit there, but if I have to look up bands of a specific subgenre and I am left scratching my head then I do not include said band in the labeling.
Like I said, this is completely up to you, but use some logic and critical thinking when you do it. These are my rules… What are yours??? Sometimes it is easy. Limp Bizkit is easy to call Nü Metal like Anthrax is to Thrash Metal.
One of my favorite bands as of late is Winds Of Plague, formed in 2002. They use a lot of different elements, but came out in 2002. Do we call them Nü Metal? I am sure people did, especially back in those days. In those days the band sounded more like a Hardcore band over a Nü Metal band, but that was what was happening then.
If you were heavy, metal, and came out during that latter Nü Metal years, you were called Nü Metal. I absolutely do not agree with that, but I understand the logistics of it. I was dying a little bit inside when I was reading music people calling “Shinedown” a Nü Metal band? Wait, what???
Winds Of Plague is considered Metalcore, Hardcore, Deathcore, Death Metal, Symphonic Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Avant-garde Metal, Symphonic Black Metal.
Some other bands I love… All labeling from Google… I agree with some, but not all. I do not know how they handle this, but I am not really feeling some of these secondary, third and fourth choices.
As I Lay Dying – Metalcore, Thrash Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Christian Metal, Melodic Metalcore, Christian Hardcore, Swedecore…
Dream Theater – Rock, Progressive Rock, Progressive Metal, Hard Rock …
Machine Head – New Wave of American Heavy Metal, Thrash Metal, Death Metal, Nü Metal, Groove Metal, Metalcore, Progressive Metal, Alternative Metal, Speed Metal …
Pantera – Rock, Thrash Metal, Power Metal, Hard Rock, Glam Metal, Groove Metal, Traditional Heavy Metal, Speed Metal, Sludge Metal, Southern Rock, New Wave of American Heavy Metal…
Scar Symmerty – Melodic Death Metal, Progressive Metal, Power Metal, Death Metal, Black Metal…
Sevendust – Hard Rock, Nü Metal, Alternative Rock, Alternative Metal, Post-Grunge, Industrial Metal…
Twelve Foot Ninja – Experimental Metal, Djent, Alternative Metal, Jazz Fusion, Acoustic Music, Experimental Rock, Avant-garde Metal, Funk Metal, Dub…
I get most people do not want to label their music like that. However, Heavy Metal is a family of music genres that is in a class all by itself. The numbers differ, but you can have as many as 75 different Subgenres of Heavy Metal.
While writing this I could only find 54. Again this is all objective. People make them up every few years. There is a subgenre called Nintendocore and all it is people creating music which sounds like the music on the old NES gaming console. Why this is a thing I couldn’t tell you. Some people want to feel important I guess. We live in a very confused INTERNET fueled culture these days.
This isn’t a blog about human behavior in relation to Heavy Metal and 8-bit soundtracks. Now, if someone told me August Burns Red’s cover of the Legend of Zelda theme was Nintendocore and I didn’t already know what Nintendocore was then I could agree that this song is Nintendocore. It isn’t, but again how are you or I associate Heavy Metal music to other Heavy Metal music is opinion based. Most agree that a subgenre has its own rules, but bands flip flop and/or are interchangeable more than the Politicians of this country do.
It’s all just objective perspective… Some will say Pop/Rock is whatever Rock song/album/band is popular. I only agree with that a little bit.
I say POP/ROCK has 3 main criteria that work together, but are also mutually exclusive;
1) As a form of music that one cannot put a label on, specifically.
2) Has different elements from other musical genres.
3) Happens to be a popular song/songs.
So POP/ROCK is more like a label given to bands/artists that do not fit in a “specific” subgenre. I actually call this “Fusion.” Now, more or less this is talking about how Metalheads may think of it. This by no means is a judgement and/or based on any fact. There are no facts in music. It’s all objective. I do not deny. I am a snob when it comes to this, I am…
I was into Trance back in the day, Paul Oakenfold. I like Dubstep style music too. Dubstep is literally Heavy Metal with electronical instrumentation. There are a lot of similarities. Plus, you are seeing a lot of dubstep style sampling used in more extreme metal these days. The subgenre of Metalcore has a lot of these elements; Asking Alexandria, Attila, Skip The Foreplay, I See Stars, Capture the Crown, Make Me Famous. It was big in the latter 2000s and early 2010s… I still see this trying to push through to the front of Heavy Metal, but bands like Asking Alexandria and Attila no longer sound like what they were when they first started getting big. Asking Alexandria is basically a Pop band now and Attila would rather do Porn videos and be a marketing machine on Twitter than writing great Metalcore music. Things have changed… Not just with those bands, but bands in general.
The whole industry has shifted since the Pandemic started, but there was a lot of evidence that the typical Garage Band Journey of starting from nothing and becoming a house hold name was in decline.
When I took over logistics for the band I manage now after the first 3 or 4 months I was open to a lot. Once we started pulling local band grind of driving across the state for no money, no fans, which means no merch sales, means no money.
Now, locally we are good with that. We’ll play shows like that, here, but not 2 to 3 hours away in 3 beat up vehicles, cramming 10 people into a shitty hotel room, gas, booze, food, child care, scheduling conflicts. Before we know it we are pulling monies out of the band fund just to play a show.
We do not pay to play, especially in front of no people accept the other bands and their girlfriends. Jammin’ in 7-8 bands in a small ass bar with little to NO PAY, but the bar made their money that night. That isn’t a show that is band practice… There is one exception and that is when opening for a national.
Bands are on YouTube now, doing streams, covers, different takes of songs. Content is being streamed now more than ever and if bands are not willing to change with that dynamic then they are behind the times.
Being a garage band and playing shitty bars for no money and expecting record executives to be there to sign the band, well, that doesn’t exist anymore. It hasn’t in a long time actually.
The music is changing too… It’s all about tuning down, low tones and 8-string guitars, sometimes 2 of them. Now, older school guitar players will fight this and call it cookie cutter and/or basic, but the metal community has accepted this is the direction styles are moving metal forward.
Vocally you have people like; Tatiana Shmayluk of JINJER. Probably the hottest vocalist on the market next to Alex Terrible of Slaughter to Prevail. Tatiana is the best of both worlds with a soft voice and a scream that will make any metalhead smile wider than the Joker…
She can scream like a man, clean, but yet also pull off Gwen Stefani harmonics without all the synth bull crap. She does this with little to no effects and absolutely no Autotune. A lot of metal singers cannot go from scream to melody on a dime, but she can and it’s amazing. Also this is a great example of what 8-string tuned down guitars sound like with someone that can actually sing along with screaming. That is why Jinjer is doing so well right now. Rumor has it they are playing Janus Live in December in Saint Petersburg, Florida…
What Alex Terrible is doing/using is called “false vocal gutturals” and many of metal singers have damaged their vocal cords, seriously and permanently, trying to sing like this incorrectly. It took him 12 years of being coached and practicing for him to be able to do this the way he does and not damage his vocal cords. What is amazing about this is he does this with no added digital effects. Maybe some eq’n and your standard clean up filters, but nothing is added here to make him sound like this. It’s all him. He also sells these crazy demon masks that are always sold out and he will do hip/hop covers using only his false vocal cord gutturals. (Very entertaining)…
Closing…
All I am doing with this BLOG, and a really long one, is to show the difference between some of the labeling styles between popular Heavy Metal Subgenres. Just imagine if Lady Gaga did a real Heavy Metal record? Using her dance/pop style with an 8-string tuned down guitars, inverse bass drops, keyboards, LP turntable scratches, false vocal cord singing over just making a rock version of a pop artist.
That would be a very interesting sound I would love to hear. Now if Lady Gaga just did her normal sound with just some “rock” guitars that is exactly what someone would do if they said they wanted to go Metal, but truly do not know what metal is. Like the IG model that wears an Iron Maiden shirt but cannot name one single song of the band.
That isn’t new or pushing the elements. I get it, but whenever I hear a pop/rap artist take a stab at Heavy Metal they tend to show they do not know what Heavy Metal is. The only artist I have heard consistently over the years that can do it is Ice Tea’s “Body Count.” All black rap people making real, Heavy Metal records. And they are good… That’s what I am talking about… That’s love… That’s coming together…
I can just see some hotshot Producer saying “let’s do a metal song,” but it’s not metal, it’s barely rock, but Producer dude doesn’t know what real metal is nowadays. Metallica BLACK wouldn’t be called Thrash Metal nowadays, even Disturbed to me really isn’t “Heavy” Metal. So if you are not sure how heavy you have to be to be called “Heavy” Metal… Well, tune it down…
The Heavy Metal community is a huge group of people that come from all sort of backgrounds, places, colors, sexes, creeds, tastes, but we all tend to LOVE HEAVY METAL and that brings us all together. Man. I can really go and find wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy more examples of Metalheads being people with huge caring hearts than the latter.