When Metal was huge
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When Metal was huge
Grunge was the hair metal killer, but Death, Thrash, Black, and Groove Metal thrived in the early 90s
I’m back folks! Apologies for the interruption in my weekly posts, but the Aquanaut’s watery lair was finally infected with Covid. I’m ok again but it’s a nasty dose. Be careful out there.
The early 90s saw the meteoric rise of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and (a bit later) The Smashing Pumpkins. Seen as a rejection of the excesses of the glam and hair metal bands of the late 80s, they sang about ‘authentic’ subjects like the true identity of ones parents, homelessness, domestic abuse, and drug use. This was a far cry from the likes of crushing on your teacher, and pouring sugar on oneself. Bands like Motley Crue, Def Leppard, and Guns n Roses all had massive identity crises (albeit while still making millions of dollars). Jon Bon Jovi cut his hair!
A parallel trajectory was seen in ‘hard’ metal. Metallica’s ‘the Black album’ was released in August 1991 and though much of the subject matter was pure power metal shlock with ‘Enter Sandman’ and ‘Of Wolf and Man’, they hit a nerve with seemingly autobiographical tracks like ‘The Unforgiven’, ‘Nothing Else Matters’ and ‘The God that Failed’. The Black album was notoriously slickly produced and today it is seen as the moment when extreme metal not only became mainstream, but actually somehow sold out. This is a contradictory point of view as pretty much every Metal band had been aiming for something similar before Metallica stuck that particular landing.
But what was really unusual about this was that Metallica are heavy. They were heavy on their debut album ‘Kill Em All’ and 1984’s ‘Ride the Lightning’ was heavier than anything their peers came out with that year (and that includes Slayer). Yes, the Black Album had pseudo Metal ballads like the afore mentioned ‘The Unforgiven’ and the anthemic ‘Nothing Else Matters’, but it also had absolute headbangers like ‘Sad But True’.
As a result of their success Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax became well known bands among even casual Metal Heads. In 1993 Brazilian Metal band Sepultura released ‘Chaos A.D.’, an album so influential that along with Pantera’s ‘Vulgar Display of Power’ helped coined a new genre called Groove Metal.
In the two far flung locations of Sweden and Florida USA, Death Metal Bands like Entombed, Unleashed (Swe), and Morbid Angel, and Cannibal Corpse (Flo) each came screaming onto our airwaves.
From the darkness of the north of Norway amidst the scandals of suicides, murders, and church burnings came the second wave of Black Metal with bands like Mayhem, Darkthrone, and Immortal.
In 1994 Pantera hit number 1 on the US Billboard with the album ‘Far Beyond Driven’. Not the hard rock or metal charts mind you, but the actual number 1 best selling album charts. Even the Black Album didn’t manage that.
Sepultura were played on mainstream radio in my home country of Ireland. In the middle of the day!
The late 90s and early 00s saw the rise of Nu-Metal and bands like Evanescence and Linkin Park became stars.
Then streaming happened and every heavy metal band stopped making money. They all retired and went back to playing pubs and warehouse gigs. Right?
Of course that’s not true. Just a few weeks ago 60,000 people attended Hellfest in France per day over a seven day Metal Festival. Download in the UK attracts around 75,000 per day over a three day weekend. Similar numbers are found at festivals all throughout the summer season.
But if you look at the current US Hot 100 Billboard charts the only Metal band present are Metallica. They are currently at number 35 with Master of Puppets, a song first released in 1986. There are a handful of rock bands in the list like Imagine Dragons and One Republic, but I think even they would agree they’re not exactly in the genre as Sepultura.
Metal and its spiritual cousins like Punk, Hardcore, Crossover, and all of the various Hard Rock genres has always been niche. It has thrived on being the music of the outsider. But even the outsider gets their day in the sun. Hip hop and Punk have produced best sellers.
The music industry has changed forever. The streaming giants now dominate and the charts try to include the streaming figures. But that’s not all that has changed. Netflix and the other TV streaming services vie for our time. The CEO of Netflix famously stated in 2017 that they are competing, not with the other streaming services, but actually with the hours we sleep. It’s a scary thought, but it’s also true. Today we have too much media to consumer. There’s the entire gaming industry. PC, Console, Mobile app etc. There’s Social Media. There’s podcasts, audiobooks, ebooks. I don’t have time to keep up with everything thrown my way. It’s not surprising that kids these days first heard Kate Bush, Metallica, and Creedence Clearwater Revival from Stranger Things on Netflix. They wouldn’t have time to track down these artists any other way.
So where are all the best new Metal bands in the charts? Well my tip for the next big thing and a band poised for breakthrough success are Spiritbox. Hailing from Canada, Spiritbox are decidedly heavy. Their first album ‘Eternal Blue’ debuted at Number 3 in the Billboard Albums chart, which is quite something as their lead single is the Apocalyptic sounding ‘Holy Roller’. The Midsommar inspired video has a very respectable 4.3 million views on Youtube. Their latest single sees them segue into what fans have termed Dance Metal.
They are brilliant and catchy as hell. ‘Holy Roller’ was wonderfully covered by a child on America’s Got Talent recently and some recent drone footage of one of their gigs even went slightly viral on Twitter.
Spiritbox have toured Europe and the US to much acclaim this summer and putting in the hours (weeks/months) are what makes Metal fans follow a band. But for album number 2 they might need an ‘Eddie Munso in Stranger Things’ moment to make them the new Metallica.
Next post: Norwegian Black Metal for Dummies.