⛧
On the Myth of Metal's Demise
by Noctir (Jan. 2011)
There are a lot of myths in the realm of metal. One of the more popular ones is this: “grunge came along and killed metal in the early 1990s, Pantera was the band that kept metal alive during the so-called dark ages, and then metal was finally reborn nearly a decade later.” This is utterly ridiculous and filled with errors that need to be exposed and disproved. Here, I will dispel the myth that metal ever “died,” as well as the associated nonsense that alternative rock had anything to do with it or that Pantera were the saviours of all that was metal. These things are simply not true.
Several metal bands managed to break through and achieve some measure of mainstream success in the '70s and '80s, yet these were in the minority. For every band like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and Metallica that attained some level of success, there were hundreds of others still toiling in relative obscurity. Metal has always, largely, been an underground movement. Anyone with real knowledge understands that the best quality material will always be found in the underground, where it belongs. There is also confusion about what metal really is, especially in the mainstream. The media often mislabelled bands for various reasons, leading to a general sense of confusion for newcomers. Even those bands that got videos on MTV and some radio play were not necessarily huge successes, nor did losing that exposure kill them. Legitimate metal bands received more exposure during a certain period, with thrash taking the lead for most of the '80s, but this movement went into decline, which I have covered in a previous article. The bottom line is that metal is not a product of the mainstream and does not live or die by the whims of the masses.
The next point to make, one that some are intelligent enough to realize, is that the supposed victims of alternative rock were not actually metal bands, but rather the glam rock posers that had long been associated with metal for whatever reason. Bands like Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Guns ’n’ Roses (and all the many imitators) were the ones that really suffered. By the late '80s, there were hundreds of bands that all looked and sounded alike, copying what was popular at the time. Most of the more well-known rock bands had recorded fairly successful ballads, so there came a huge wave of bands trying to recreate that success for themselves. The entire movement was diluted, and it was obvious these losers were hopping on the bandwagon to make money that would be squandered on alcohol, drugs, and hookers. The trend had worn out its welcome and run its course long before bands like Nirvana or Alice in Chains appeared. Mainstream popular music is a curious thing: there are few classics; things are cool for a while and then become fodder for jokes. The fact that various forms of corporate rock were in serious decline and that “grunge” was on the rise was more coincidence than causation. When people get bored with one thing, they look for something else to amuse themselves. The term alternative rock denotes that they were doing something different from what one could find on albums from Poison, Warrant, or Slaughter. As those bands were on their way out, others came to fill the vacuum. Alternative rock did not kill anything, least of all metal. It is disgusting that certain idiots could never differentiate between this garbage and actual metal.
While thrash was in decline by this point, the underground thrived throughout this period. Classic death metal albums were released from healthy scenes all over the U.S. and Europe. As that sub-genre became stagnant, the second wave of black metal exploded onto the scene and continued to carry on the old ways. Time and again, ignorant people say the '90s were a terrible time for metal, which could not be further from the truth. These same imbeciles talk about the great and mighty Pantera and how they saved metal. This is propaganda spewed by members of the band and their affiliates, such as Scott Ian of Anthrax. There are so many things wrong with this that it induces a migraine just trying to comprehend it.
Pantera were posers, period. They jumped from one bandwagon to another whenever it suited them. Throughout the '80s, they played a Kiss/Van Halen-influenced brand of rock/metal that they later tried to downplay or deny. Eventually, they were inspired by Metallica and Slayer to play something heavier, but even their best efforts were mediocre by comparison. When metal was no longer cool in the mainstream, they followed trends in both sound and image. They traded their leather and denim for flannel and shorts, while Phil Anselmo took on the appearance of a wannabe thug. His entire persona matched his new look, obsessed with coming off as tough. Their lyrics shifted from traditional metal topics to the same themes dominating the mainstream: drug addiction, child abuse, seeking attention and respect. This was the angsty nonsense already saturating radio at the time. They were not waving the flag of true metal, as they later claimed. They had jumped on another bandwagon and aimed their music at the same crowd listening to alternative rock and rap. Their catchy, groove-oriented riffs appealed to the masses, and their simplistic song structures targeted simple minds. If anything, they were detrimental to metal, inspiring countless nu-metal and metalcore bands that further confused what real metal was and forced true metalheads to be lumped in with poser scum. It is a joke that they wrote a song about the underground in America, something they had nothing to do with. By the time their popularity waned, Phil embraced it by growing his hair out and wearing Venom and Darkthrone t-shirts. He started associating himself with actual metal and promoted the idea that Pantera had kept metal alive. This was a calculated lie meant to rewrite history and ease his transition to the next phase.
Among the bands he championed was Darkthrone. Looking at Darkthrone, one sees a band that truly kept the spirit of metal alive. Black metal as a whole did this during the '90s. As thrash and death metal declined, black metal preserved the old feeling and carried it forward. Death metal developed into something hardly related to its origins. Black metal’s development is clear from Venom, Bathory, and Hellhammer through Darkthrone, Mayhem, and beyond. Black metal uniquely reveres those who came before and adheres to tradition. Many bands experiment with their sound, but many remain pure, refusing to cross certain boundaries. These bands kept metal alive and continue to do so.
Darkthrone jumped off the death metal bandwagon and reached back to something older and darker. While Phil Anselmo was adopting the grunge/rap image and style, Darkthrone took the sounds of Bathory and Hellhammer, mixed with their own vision, and created something cold and dark. Their music inspired thousands worldwide. In recent years, they have delved deeper into the past, incorporating more old-school influences, keeping alive a style of real metal often forgotten or ignored. They have always shunned the masses and done what they wanted, regardless of the money they could have made by conforming. They are repaid with scorn for not repeating the same album 15 times, while posers like Pantera get some respect for things they neither did nor needed.
Metal never died. Just because bands like Metallica and Megadeth wimped out means nothing in the grand scheme. Even glam posers never fully died, lingering in one form or another. Alternative rock did not kill anything and burned out quicker than the previous trend, only to be replaced by another worthless form of popular music. The so-called rebirth of metal mostly features bands that are not metal to begin with. Whether a handful of watered-down garbage gets recognition means nothing for the movement as a whole. Finally, regarding the great saviours and anti-trend warriors Pantera, they saved nothing. They merely jumped from one trend to another to remain relevant and cash in as long as possible. Bands like Darkthrone have done more with one album to maintain metal’s spirit than Pantera ever did in their entire career.
Several metal bands managed to break through and achieve some measure of mainstream success in the '70s and '80s, yet these were in the minority. For every band like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and Metallica that attained some level of success, there were hundreds of others still toiling in relative obscurity. Metal has always, largely, been an underground movement. Anyone with real knowledge understands that the best quality material will always be found in the underground, where it belongs. There is also confusion about what metal really is, especially in the mainstream. The media often mislabelled bands for various reasons, leading to a general sense of confusion for newcomers. Even those bands that got videos on MTV and some radio play were not necessarily huge successes, nor did losing that exposure kill them. Legitimate metal bands received more exposure during a certain period, with thrash taking the lead for most of the '80s, but this movement went into decline, which I have covered in a previous article. The bottom line is that metal is not a product of the mainstream and does not live or die by the whims of the masses.
The next point to make, one that some are intelligent enough to realize, is that the supposed victims of alternative rock were not actually metal bands, but rather the glam rock posers that had long been associated with metal for whatever reason. Bands like Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Guns ’n’ Roses (and all the many imitators) were the ones that really suffered. By the late '80s, there were hundreds of bands that all looked and sounded alike, copying what was popular at the time. Most of the more well-known rock bands had recorded fairly successful ballads, so there came a huge wave of bands trying to recreate that success for themselves. The entire movement was diluted, and it was obvious these losers were hopping on the bandwagon to make money that would be squandered on alcohol, drugs, and hookers. The trend had worn out its welcome and run its course long before bands like Nirvana or Alice in Chains appeared. Mainstream popular music is a curious thing: there are few classics; things are cool for a while and then become fodder for jokes. The fact that various forms of corporate rock were in serious decline and that “grunge” was on the rise was more coincidence than causation. When people get bored with one thing, they look for something else to amuse themselves. The term alternative rock denotes that they were doing something different from what one could find on albums from Poison, Warrant, or Slaughter. As those bands were on their way out, others came to fill the vacuum. Alternative rock did not kill anything, least of all metal. It is disgusting that certain idiots could never differentiate between this garbage and actual metal.
While thrash was in decline by this point, the underground thrived throughout this period. Classic death metal albums were released from healthy scenes all over the U.S. and Europe. As that sub-genre became stagnant, the second wave of black metal exploded onto the scene and continued to carry on the old ways. Time and again, ignorant people say the '90s were a terrible time for metal, which could not be further from the truth. These same imbeciles talk about the great and mighty Pantera and how they saved metal. This is propaganda spewed by members of the band and their affiliates, such as Scott Ian of Anthrax. There are so many things wrong with this that it induces a migraine just trying to comprehend it.
Pantera were posers, period. They jumped from one bandwagon to another whenever it suited them. Throughout the '80s, they played a Kiss/Van Halen-influenced brand of rock/metal that they later tried to downplay or deny. Eventually, they were inspired by Metallica and Slayer to play something heavier, but even their best efforts were mediocre by comparison. When metal was no longer cool in the mainstream, they followed trends in both sound and image. They traded their leather and denim for flannel and shorts, while Phil Anselmo took on the appearance of a wannabe thug. His entire persona matched his new look, obsessed with coming off as tough. Their lyrics shifted from traditional metal topics to the same themes dominating the mainstream: drug addiction, child abuse, seeking attention and respect. This was the angsty nonsense already saturating radio at the time. They were not waving the flag of true metal, as they later claimed. They had jumped on another bandwagon and aimed their music at the same crowd listening to alternative rock and rap. Their catchy, groove-oriented riffs appealed to the masses, and their simplistic song structures targeted simple minds. If anything, they were detrimental to metal, inspiring countless nu-metal and metalcore bands that further confused what real metal was and forced true metalheads to be lumped in with poser scum. It is a joke that they wrote a song about the underground in America, something they had nothing to do with. By the time their popularity waned, Phil embraced it by growing his hair out and wearing Venom and Darkthrone t-shirts. He started associating himself with actual metal and promoted the idea that Pantera had kept metal alive. This was a calculated lie meant to rewrite history and ease his transition to the next phase.
Among the bands he championed was Darkthrone. Looking at Darkthrone, one sees a band that truly kept the spirit of metal alive. Black metal as a whole did this during the '90s. As thrash and death metal declined, black metal preserved the old feeling and carried it forward. Death metal developed into something hardly related to its origins. Black metal’s development is clear from Venom, Bathory, and Hellhammer through Darkthrone, Mayhem, and beyond. Black metal uniquely reveres those who came before and adheres to tradition. Many bands experiment with their sound, but many remain pure, refusing to cross certain boundaries. These bands kept metal alive and continue to do so.
Darkthrone jumped off the death metal bandwagon and reached back to something older and darker. While Phil Anselmo was adopting the grunge/rap image and style, Darkthrone took the sounds of Bathory and Hellhammer, mixed with their own vision, and created something cold and dark. Their music inspired thousands worldwide. In recent years, they have delved deeper into the past, incorporating more old-school influences, keeping alive a style of real metal often forgotten or ignored. They have always shunned the masses and done what they wanted, regardless of the money they could have made by conforming. They are repaid with scorn for not repeating the same album 15 times, while posers like Pantera get some respect for things they neither did nor needed.
Metal never died. Just because bands like Metallica and Megadeth wimped out means nothing in the grand scheme. Even glam posers never fully died, lingering in one form or another. Alternative rock did not kill anything and burned out quicker than the previous trend, only to be replaced by another worthless form of popular music. The so-called rebirth of metal mostly features bands that are not metal to begin with. Whether a handful of watered-down garbage gets recognition means nothing for the movement as a whole. Finally, regarding the great saviours and anti-trend warriors Pantera, they saved nothing. They merely jumped from one trend to another to remain relevant and cash in as long as possible. Bands like Darkthrone have done more with one album to maintain metal’s spirit than Pantera ever did in their entire career.
Last Updated: You are Visitor #: