For the past few weeks, I have been playing a set that is quite different from normal metal. Don’t be fooled, it is indeed metal, but it is a thinking man’s metal.
There are so many bands out there in the metal scene all playing the same music that it sometimes makes me lose hope in the metal scene. Yet there are always those few bands who are bold enough and crazy enough to push not only the metal genre itself forward, but question what it truly means to make music.
I am, of course, talking about the subset of metal including Drone, Doom, Shoegaze, Avant-Garde, and Noise. While these genre names may seem crazy, boring, or downright depressing, they also help push us and question the music. These bands that play these styles are actually one of the few innovators in the metal scene. Where everyone else is trying to sound more brutal with breakdowns and blast beats, these guys achieve true brutality and even evilness with their music. With intricate harmonies layered over feedback, and deep moving lyrics superimposed upon a mournful guitar and lone drum, one can lose themselves in the music. All it takes is some patience and expanding of one’s mind.
And that is what I do during that segment. I force you to open your mind, and to truly question what you know about not just metal, but music in general. For I believe, that to truly be a metal-head, you need not only listen to metal and enjoy the music, but to really embrace it and appreciate all forms of it. For there is so much more out in the metal scene than breakdowns, blast beats, cookie monster growls, and dragons. There is actually true art to be found, and you only need to expand your mind to find it.
Notable Bands:
- Sunn O)))
- Boris
- Rosetta
- Jesu
- Ahab
- My Dying Bride
- Swallow The Sun
- Anathema
- Isis
- Pelican
- The Angelic Process
- Nadja