Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Severian
Ok, help me out then.
I know *a bit* about metal, but you’re right. Not a ton. Happy with classic thrash stuff and Deafheaven and the Body and Thou. But educate me! I’m down.
|
Metal is open to a lot of nuance and stretches itself into a lot of new territories beyond just amalgamating things. It is true for a fact that many of its sub-genres get bogged down and eat their own Tails by refusing to work outside a strict set of parameters. But those very subgenres come to exist because somebody in one place or another decided to push things in a different direction.
Hellhammer and Celtic Frost were definitely an early example of Avant garde metal in the early 80s, for instance. I know a lot of people who appreciate their approach and the fact that it didn't emphasize technicality so much as atmosphere. You can actually sort of hear them learn how to play over the course of their recordings. Tom's current band Triptykon still carry on in a forward-thinking Direction, made better still by the fact that he has become a fine musician and composer over the decades.
Bathory are another great early example of raw black metal emerging in the 80s, and he also managed to create the Epic Viking Style and get super polished and grandiose a couple of years after that. Double gigantic influence there. For good or ill, that work is super important.
Ulver certainly pushed a lot of boundaries, and through that process wound up not even really being a metal band at all anymore, but they have managed to make a lot of strong statements in a lot of different areas. It would have been hard to foresee that at the beginning.
The whole reason I got into black metal when it came into its own in the early and mid 90s because it appealed to the part of me that likes noise and groups like Sonic Youth. It had that Sonic quality to it and didn't sound like any metal I'd heard before then. I didn't grow up with metal at the center of my listening but I have listened to it quite a bit since the 90s. There are a lot of dead ends, but there are a lot of really good rabbit holes when you find which ones to go down
Seriously though, if you don't like metal generally I would suggest Aluk Todolo's "Occult Rock" or the work of Oranssi Pazuzu for more current examples. Those groups are classified as metal but what they really are to me is extremely evil Space Rock. And they're both excellent.
Edit: symbols guy take note; if the vocals are a big issue for you, Aluk Todolo are instrumental.