The future of Metal Music. Is it over or not?
Metal music is dead and nobody listens to it in 2019 — this statement is quite popular among people nowadays when you discuss this problem. However, they still play heavy metal music and write songs in this genre. Moreover, festivals like Download, Hellfest, Ozzfest, Knotfest still exist and sell a huge amount of tickets every year. Do you find it strange?
DEAD GENRE
First, I should say the term “dead genre” is not correct because the genre itself can’t die; it only becomes less popular than it used to be, for example, disco, grunge, and even britpop. However, this music still exists and people listen to it and buy records. Of course, these artists can’t sell their music the way they used to do it ten years ago, but they still make songs and that what keeps genres alive.
Talking about metal music, we can see that it’s alive and kickin’.
Slipknot released their new album «We are not your kind» which reached #1 position on Billboard 200 and #1 on the UK’s Top 100 biggest albums.
The band Ghost won Kerrang! Awards in nomination Best Album with their last record “Prequel”.
On August 16, 2019, an American metalcore band Killswitch Engage released their album called “Atonement” which received positive reviews from music critics and audience. And don’t forget about the glorious comeback of As I Lay Dying with their LP “Shaped by Fire” which is going to make metalcore great again.
You may say “Ok, these are the modern metal bands but what about the classic heavy metal music?” Well, Judas Priest’s new album which was released in 2018 “Firepower” reached top charts (#5 on the UK Albums, #5 on Billboard 200, #1 on Billboard Top Hard Rock Albums, #2 on Billboard Top Rock Albums). It shows us, that even the classic metal is relevant today. The amount of sold-out concerts of the bands like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Metallica, Def Leppard is huge. According to NME.com Metallica has earned $69,7 million which puts them on #4 position in top 25 artists with high-grossing tours, based on Pollstar’s report, along with KISS (#7), Trans-Siberian Orchestra (#8), Paul McCartney (#16).
MIXTURE OF GENRES
Of course, modern metal appears to be a mixture of classic heavy metal music, metalcore, hardcore, glam metal, alternative metal and others with different genres, for instance, electronic music, pop music, hard rock (Asking Alexandria’s self-titled album with their brand-new single «The Violence», Bring Me The Horizon’s “AMO”), psychedelic rock (“Kiss the Go-Goat” by Ghost), rap (Hyro the Hero, Falling in Reverse). Moreover, a lot of pop and rap artists include rock and metal elements in their tracks, for example, Machine Gun Kelly, who also played Tommy Lee (the drummer of Motley Crue) in a movie called “The Dirt”.
That means that metal music isn’t dead at all; it evolves with the help of musicians, with the help of other music genres. So, if metal was dead or supposed to be dead, then nobody would by records and tickets for shows, NOBODY WOULD PLAY THIS MUSIC.
