(Opinion Thread) Metal Music And The Decline Then Rise In Quality 1990-2021

[oldgamerz]

The 1960 1970's and especailly the 1980's had a ton of great lost metal music, anything from Bands like

 Black Sabbath, Dio, Dokken, Krokus, Saxon, Ozzie Osbourne solo, Metallica, Kiss, Iron Maiden, Motley Crue, Twisted Sister, Riot, Quiet Riot, Jimi Hendrix, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Foreigner, Boston, Skid Row, Firehouse, Slaughter, Scorpions, Cinderella, Aerosmith, Aldo Nova, Blue Oyster Cult, Bon Jovi, Cream, The Who, The Guess Who, Danger Danger, Danm Yankees, Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, Def Leppard, Fastway, iron Butterfly, Free, Sweet, Nazareth, Van Halen, Megadeth, Jackyl, Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, Starship, Joe Satriani, Joan Jett and The Blackhearts, Bob Segar, Lita Ford, Judas Priest, Kansas, Kingdom Come, Kix, Guns 'n' Roses, LA Guns, Lenny kravitz, Thin Lizzy, Led Zeppelin, Loverboy, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Blackfoot, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Motorhead, Molly Hatchet, ZZ-Top, Blackfoot Sue, Mountain, Mr. Big, Queensryche, Queen, Pink Floyd, Poison, The Quireboys, Gotthard,  Ratt, Rainbow, Accept, REO Speedwagon, Rush, Sammy Hagar solo, Steppinwolf, Steelheart, Journey, Supertramp, Survivor,  Toto, Triumph, Von Groove, Winger, White Lion, Warrant, Whitesnake, Winger, Yngwie Malmsteen, Eric Clapton, Jeff Healy Band, Gary Moore, (etc)


to bands like

Pearl Jam, Korn, Alice In Chains, Nirvana, (etc) Personally I like Alice in Chain's and Nirvana, but I can't get into Pearl Jam like at all, and metal to me? only got worse or died out completely after that point, But a few bands like Saxon for example kept the guitar riffs coming' but most just sucked after that in my opinion up until recently in the 2009-2021 things I believe are starting to get better in the metal sound in my own opinion. Bands like "Seether" and "Volbeat" are new and amazing in my own opinion. Korn is not that good either but I don't want to go there because I'll listen to Korn just because I don't know exactly why.

I do love 3 Doors Down, Creed, Nickelback, Linkin' Park, Tool, and all those early 2000's bands though even Disturbed.

to stay on topic I want to talk about what you think happened the metal's quality exceeding 1990's and how do you think it fell, or do you believe it did, and lastly do you like or listen to classic metal music?

[Warmsignal]

Eh, I don't really think many of those bands would even qualify as being metal. Eric Clapton? Come on, now.

Personally I think metal has only ever gotten better as time has progressed. You could argue there was a bit of a lull in the 90s when "nu metal" became commercially successful, but even then a lot of those bands were just glorified hard rock with hip-hop inspired vocals. However, metal was still a thing at the time if you were willing to look beyond the mainstream. Since the 90s, there's been all sorts of sub-genres in technical and extreme metal.

Seether has been around for 20 years, and I believe their style is more of a post-grunge or butt rock if you will, they're certainly not metal. I do like some of that kind of stuff, but I'm selective about it. I tend to prefer Tool worship over Nirvana worship when it comes to butt rock, although none of it should be construed as metal necessarily.

Personally, I'm not a fan of metal new or old outside of a few bands. I used to listen to a few like Darkest Hour, Veil of Maya, Cynic, The Contortionist, and Protest The Hero. Been out of the loop for a long time though, and not really in the mindset for metal these days.

[snyderec3]

Most of what you named isn't metal, but the metal you did name, is generally, some good stuff. I'm a big fan of old school heavy metal from the 70s and early 80s when it was still showing it's Psych Rock roots, like early Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep or Blind Guardian, But I'm also a fan of newer styles like thrash, speed, power or even some symphonic metal. Iron Maiden is probably my favourite metal band of all time, and I appreciate how DragonForce takes some obvious inspiration from them.

[tripredacus]

The problem with the bands listed (besides the non-metal options but let's not forget that Michael Bolton would appear on 80s metal comps) is that they are mostly bands played on the radio. The speed influence of NWOBHM that started in the underground briefly rose to appear in popular music but then popular music went to slower music and ballads. This flows in perfectly to the grundge era, and explains the rise of the heavier nu-metal bands.

Metal on the radio certainly has gone away from the roots and has gone down the same road that country went. But the metal off the radio had progressed differently, and I would say that the quality has actually increased. Especially with access to the internet and being able to listen to bands from other countries.

[98dgreen]

Metal is better and more specialized to individual tastes than ever.  People are no longer restrained by what they decide to play on the radio or what they sell in stores.  Plus there is 50 years of back catalogue to go through.

[burningdoom]

The problem with the bands listed (besides the non-metal options but let's not forget that Michael Bolton would appear on 80s metal comps) is that they are mostly bands played on the radio. The speed influence of NWOBHM that started in the underground briefly rose to appear in popular music but then popular music went to slower music and ballads. This flows in perfectly to the grundge era, and explains the rise of the heavier nu-metal bands.

Metal on the radio certainly has gone away from the roots and has gone down the same road that country went. But the metal off the radio had progressed differently, and I would say that the quality has actually increased. Especially with access to the internet and being able to listen to bands from other countries.

Michael Bolton actually started as hair metal...I was surprised when I found out, too.

[burningdoom]

I love 70s, 80s, 90s, and 2000s metal.

Though I will admit, the grunge-era was a low-point for metal in general. Despite that, we still had good metal bands like Metallica, Megadeth, Pantera, Queensryche, Testament. and Type O Negative among others. W.A.S.P. was putting out some of the best stuff of their career despite the downfall of hair metal, and Def Leppard was also still going strong. Hell, Megadeth and Metallica alone could've carried metal during those years. They were phenomenal in the 90s.

I'm a big fan of 80s hair metal and the early thrash metal scene, so I have a lot of love for the 80s metal. The Nu-Metal scene was mixed-bag, for me. I really hated the rap-metal hybrid stuff. I'm just not a fan of bands like Limp Bizkit, Rage Against the Machine, Korn, and Kid Rock. Not my scene. But some of the other, not-so-rap nu-metal bands I did like; such as Mudvayne, Coal Chamber, Disturbed, Sevendust, and others. And the first decade of the 2000s heralded the rise of melodic-death metal and metalcore bands I love like Killswitch Engage, Scar Symmetry, In Flames, Dark Tranquility, Insomnium, In This Moment, Trivium, and others; so I'm a big fan of that era.

[oldgamerz]

Michael Bolton 1983 album, now if I could find that on CD now THAT would be great, I used to have Michael Bolton's 1983 album title for the cassette, but I never ever found it on CD if any of you guys can get ahold of Michael Bolton 1983 I'd recommend it that album was awesome and it's also rare think

here is a link to this fantastic metal album

https://www.amazon.com/Michael-Bolton/dp/B0000025UD

On a side note Michael Bolton because known better as a Soul and R&B artist after that album came out, he sounds like a black man but I was surprised to find out he was actually white when I first heard the music Michael Bolton was famous for. Many people know him as R&B and Soul but he actually was better at metal in my own opinion.

[gummo]

To me , hard rock/metal stumbled around the 90's and has only gotten better . Glam mainly crashed and burned . Metallica dropped a few turds . I was more into thrash and punk so I ended up getting into bands like L7 , Zombie , Manson , anything industrial or experimental . Right now though there's a lot of great metal coming out in more sub-genres than I can keep track of . Nu metal is mostly great as long as it doesn't have auto-tune , European bands are killing it , Metallica finally released a decent album again , I can't complain about metal today . I ended up throwing out most of my cassettes from the 80's so I don't listen to the classics much , just what I've replaced with CDs . Bands I play a lot now - Def Leppard , classic Metallica , Exodus , Megadeth , Lich King , Motionless in White , Avatar , White Zombie/Rob Zombie , Slipknot , Rammstein , Cradle of Filth , Static-X , New Years Day , We Butter the Bread With Butter , Halestorm , 3TEETH , Bullet For My Valentine , Cavalera Conspiracy .