Is the genre "Thrash Metal" stagnating?

[Nzoric]

Hello everyone. For the past few years I've been on a metal listening hiatus, I simply plugged out of the genre after I listened to Lulu. Don't get me wrong, I still listened to it - I just stopped picking up new albums and checking out up and coming bands. Recently I had a very interesting discussion with one of my friends. The guy is inherently anti-metal, not because he does not recognize the sheer talent that some bands/artist posses, but simply because he doesn't enjoy the constant tone of aggression and hatred it expresses - to each his own! The metal genre which I enjoyed the most throughout the years definitely has to be thrash metal and all it's little offsprings. But for the past few years I've been feeling like that genre in particular has been stagnating. Is there any artistic room within those confines to explore? If you look at new thrash metal bands, like Evile, I can't help but feeling bored half way through the song. The once iconic muted tripplet riffing is becoming boring to me, the mandatory jam session in the last 3/5's of the track has stopped appealing. Am I the only one who feels this way? I thought about making this thread about metal in general, but I don't know enough bands to articulate qualified opinions about them. It might be the teenager in me who died during the past few years, but the satanistic undertones combined with slasher metal lyrics, extreme vocals just for the sake of being extreme and blast beats stopped blowing my mind some time ago, which is why I started completely ignoring upcoming metal bands, as the majority of the ones I listened to ventured down this path. This is not because I'm religious in any way, the lyrical themes just do not appeal to me. So, discuss Thrash Metal and venture down the path of general metal if you feel like it. Looking forward to meeting you all.

[RelentlessOblivion]

yes thrash metal has more or less stagnated and the vast majority of new thrash bands are playing a watered down product or are basically ripping off the founders of the genre for retro appeal. That being said some of the old guard are releasing quality thrash albums for example Destruction's latest offering Spiritual Genocide is very good. Vektor are a newer band worth checking out they are thrash but don't sound like most or in fact any thrash band I'm familiar with. I don't think metal more broadly is stagnating but it does take more effort to find the gems these days, I'm quite fortunate in the sense that because I enjoy such a wide spectrum of metal genres (black, death, doom, folk, power, progressive and thrash) and have a truly mammoth pile of suggested bands and albums to trawl through I'm constantly topping up my collection with terrific material. if you are at all interested there are a few threads you could have a look at which may (or may not) prove quite helpful. in the black metal boards is a thread I started called recommendations which contains a lengthy list of suggestions accompanied by video links posted by BlutAusNerd (all but one of the threads I'm going to mention were started by me and have video links by BAN) in the death metal boards is a thread called suggestions with similarly lengthy lists and some great tech-death suggestions by Iceni as well on the first page in the doom boards is the thread doom 101, on top of those you may also want to have a look at NTNR and BlutAusNerd's band Nevertanezra, you can find a few of their songs on youtube including a couple of live videos taken at the Denver Doomfest last year in folk metal you can find the thread folk metal essentials which again is accompanied by video links in power metal you can find the thread great albums, the list here is much shorter but also contains some good recommendations by Iceni on the first page and some good ones by NTNR towards the back end of the thread in progressive metal you can find the thread intro to prog which contains a mix of progressive and avante-garde metal suggestions and in the thrash metal thread you can find the thread advanced thrash (thrash was a strong point of mine or so I thought until I started that thread) you can also find the thread top ten albums of any given year in the hobbies boards, BAN lists top ten albums going right up to 2011 which could be a great way to catch up on what you've missed though admittedly his lists are very much limited to his interests in metal

[Dj Anubis]

Thrash hasnt really offered much for me the lat 20 years but if there are a few select modern day thrash bands that i think are worthy to check it would be Havok, Vektor, Legion of the Damned, Warbringer, and Skeletonwitch. Outside of that i just rely on the classic thrash bands of yore to get my fix.

[BlutAusNerd]

Thrash metal was stagnating even before its large scale demise in the early 90's, and the retro thrash movement has brought back none of the early energy and creativity, but all of the same stagnation problems. There are bands that are making their own mark on thrash these days, either by doing it their own way (Vektor), or by actually sounding like legitimate thrash without blatantly plagiarizing their idols (Evil Army), but they are definitely in the minority. Most of the best bands doing thrash metal these days are some comebacks from the old guard (Destruction, Overkill, and others producing great albums since the fall of thrash), or bands that are combining thrash with black or death metal.

[Viking]

I think thrash has already hit it's peak. It is still around and you can still find good bands but I don't think it will reach the popularity of thrash in the eighties. Those glory days are gone my friend.

[orcslayr23]

Yeah, I think Thrash is really boring. Skeletonwitch is one of the few bands I think that's doing anything interesting with the genre.

[BlutAusNerd]

Re: Is the genre "Thrash Metal" stagnating?

Yeah' date=' I think Thrash is really boring. Skeletonwitch is one of the few bands I think that's doing anything interesting with the genre.[/quote'] I can't stand Skeletonwitch, it sounds like retro thrash done by mallcore kids that heard a couple of Slayer songs and wanted to hop on the revival trend. Sent from my HTC PH39100 using Tapatalk 2

[RelentlessOblivion]

Vektor are a prime example of a new band doing thrash in a unique way. Skeletonwitch is just another clone product that deserves no further comment

[BlackFuckingMetal666]

Municipal Waste is a relatively new band that I think is a good example that even though Thrash may be all but shit now you can still sift through it all and find a good band here and there but not a whole lot. I see good modern Thrash bands as a diamond in the rough. They may be hard to find but there out there. And Black Future by Vektor was an awesome album.

[RelentlessOblivion]

I lump municipal waste in with skeletonwitch to be honest retro thrash done poorly and warranting no further mention. It is incredibly difficult to find new thrash bands worth a damn. There was a female fronted thrash band that posted here a few times they had some cool stuff but also some really boring and generic material. Outliar were another thrash/groove band that falls into that category some very cool stuff mixed with boring material. Black Future and Outer Isolation are both great albums. I'm hoping for a new Vektor album later this year

[Viking]

You may have those bands but it will never be like it was in the early 80's. That was the golden era of thrash! It was huge then.

[RelentlessOblivion]

That's not the point though as we know good bands can come from a genre long after it's "Golden Age". The point is that the genre is not dead yet it's just in a coma and makes the odd twitch.

[BlackFuckingMetal666]

Have you listen to Hexen. It's Melodic Thrash with Progressive influences.

Thrash is branching out and has been since the late 90's since it became so popular so now everyone is finding a new face for metal a new more brutal face. Back in the 80's Metal was popularized Glam, Hair, and Thrash metal and Thrash was the one to survive that by branching out into the micro-genres(Melodic,Black,Crossover etc.) So now it's the first thing even somewhat-intelligent people think of when they hear of Metal. Now in the 2010's the new face of Metal is Death Metal since most people like Metal-Core fans seem determined to use the term when actually referring to Metal-Core. And I personally people like that are not helping Metal in anyway. There are sitting there letting people hear the worst that Metal has offer and making people dislike Metal. I honestly think that there is a genre of Metal for everyone. Metal is extremely varied.

[RelentlessOblivion]

BFM you have to take into account the majority of metalcore listeners are merely passing through on their way to the next trend. In this respect they will never help metal because they have no true interest in it. There are exceptions of course some metalcore fans will transition into legitimate metal. Metal will never be mainstream however not being mainstream need not necesarrily preclude metal from being popular. In fact I actually think metal is still quite popular. One need only look at festivals like Wacken and HellFest and the size of crowds they attract. Now of course this is in part to many of the bands at these festivals being more accessible.

[BlackFuckingMetal666]

That what I'm saying since Thrash was the face of Metal at one point it has become too popular and most bands wish to stray away from that and so Thrash is now branching out leaving some not so good bands to attempt Thrash.

[BlutAusNerd]

I lump municipal waste in with skeletonwitch to be honest retro thrash done poorly and warranting no further mention. It is incredibly difficult to find new thrash bands worth a damn. There was a female fronted thrash band that posted here a few times they had some cool stuff but also some really boring and generic material. Outliar were another thrash/groove band that falls into that category some very cool stuff mixed with boring material. Black Future and Outer Isolation are both great albums. I'm hoping for a new Vektor album later this year

Municipal Waste were doing retro thrash before the trend started, so while they're obviously not deep or original, I don't think that they're riding the wave. Or at least they weren't until recently, their first couple of albums are good if not great. I do agree with BMF's point about thrash living through incorporation with stuff like death and black metal, and it's not impossible to do pure thrash without fucking it up, it just seems that most of the people who are looking for that are either seeking idle nostalgia or want to join the PBR hordes. Here's an example of a newer band that doesn't sound new, but doesn't really sound like their influences either, doing thrash that is retro without being contrived: RVDjCKTcVE4