Was listening to Meshuggah the other day. I was completely immersed in their music and suddenely this question came up in my head. Something that made me think for quite some time. Me and my loser buddy Sridhar discussed abt this topic over beer at Aura's , which by the way is a nice place. And the question, which i think wouldve come to every music fanatic , is " Where will all the Technical Brilliance of the musicians and music eventually end up" . How wud metal be in the Future? .
Lets analyse the evolution of metal or music chronologically. It started off with soft stuff , then violins and pianos and jazz and blues. And after that came the wave of gospel RnB , and then came Rock n Roll. Then came Rock , which evolved into metal, which again had its subgenres.I really cant talk abt how each genre evolved over time. I wud briefly, mind u briefly talk abt how Metal has evolved. Well metal came in the form of Black Sabbath, considered till date as the Grandfathers of Metal. They were the pioneers in the down tuned guitars, screechy vocals and evil lyrics.Metal was heavier than rock. Black Sabbath is a band that one can never forget, cuz its cuz of them we have metal today. Sabbath had got in faster drum fills, harder beats, and more usage of cymbals.
Next came in the NWOBHM. Iron Maiden , Judas Priest, Manowar and many other bands. They took metal to one level higher , by making guitars faster, and drums louder and rolls and fills even faster. The consequence was that , the world had heavier music. And day by day the no. of fans for this heavy, heart thumping music increased. Then came in another breed of musicians, who took the heaviness and the technical abilities of musicians one more notch up. Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax - the big four as called by the metal historians , which brought in speed , and a lot of it infact along with double bass which made it the heaviest music. This made ppl go even madder. This music gave birth to terms like Headbanging and Moshing. Heaviness was defined by these bands. Running parallel to the Bay Area Thrash scene was the Florida Death metal scene and Norwegian(Scandinavian) Black Metal. Leading the way were bands like Death, Morbid Angel, Possessed in Death Metal and Mayhem, Emporer in Black Metal. All these bands were writing songs that were at the pinnacle of the music thoery. The speed was there , the artisian finis was there , and the heaviness was never ignored or compromised. Later came many other genres which are children of these Thrash and Death , but all had the heaviness and the quality intact.This was wat ppl thought was the end of metal. Then in 92 came out pantera, with their album Cowboys from Hell and blew the whole world away. They sounded diff, nothing similar to the death or thrash metal. They had their own sound and formed their own army of fans in the latter years. Dimebag Darrel was doing awesome stuff on the guitar which ppl never saw and expected. And in mid 90s started the Guttenberg Scene in Sweden. A new Breed of metal started there. Keepign the Heaviness and speed intact, they added melody and made a distinctive sound of their own. InFlames, Dark Tranquility are some notable bands.
After this came another band which brought heaviness a new meaning. MESHUGGAH. The band is better known for their odd time signatures. Leaving out the technical aspects these guys sound brilliantly heavy.This is where we are. We know how the music has grown over the ages.Technically and also decibel wise. Another 30 yrs down the lane, how wud it be ? Would we still be playing music like Meshuggah or Maiden or Sabbath. Or would it be heavier than wat we are listening to right now. Will it be more advanced technically. New music thoeries evolving? So many questions in head. But in the end , all i can say is , IT DOESNT MATTER. But I can tell u guys for sure is that , jus listen to music , keep listening to Metal and the spirit of Metal shall show us the way in the times to come. For now , forget all the bull shit, and headbang and mosh day in and day out.

METAL RULES \m/

mvikred