I am a fan of loud music. I like my metal as hard and fast as it gets and I’m always looking to see what’s new and happening at the moment, because you can only listen to 'Master Of Puppets’ so many times before your girlfriend leaves you. Thus, I have been taken with the entire New Wave of American Heavy Metal-thing for the past year or so. Bands like Killswitch Engage, Atreyu, Return to Reason (Go Amsterdam!), Avenged Sevenfold, Unearth and the like have been spinning in my cd player ever since I first caught wind of Killswitch’s second record: Alive Or Just Breathing. I guess a lot of people will file a lot of these bands under 'emo’ or 'screamo’, but I like NWOAHM better, and feel it fits the genre more.
As with any style of music, there is a limit to how much of the same you can stand and I have lately been feeling like we’re getting there with this particular branch of loud rawk. I’ve been trying to figure out for myself why we arrived at this point so very soon, as the genre itself has not nearly been as overplayed and commercialized as the late Nu-metal. Maybe the problem is actually to be found within that particular type of heavy music. Arguably, the NWOAHM has evolved from these musician’s love for eighties speed and trash metal, with the need to take it to a different place. So they used the groove and attitude found in Nu-metal and combined the two to create something that potentially could be Ãœber-metal. And in my humblest of opinions: it can be, at times. But maybe the combination of metal with a different kind of metal just gets old more quickly than genre-breaking combinations like crossover or Nu-metal.
I really enjoy the combination of emotive vocals and loud, intricate riffs as can be found on Killswitch’s 'The End Of Heartache’ or Atreyu’s 'Curse’. The stop-and-go riff, that could be seen as the signature trait of the style, has had bands come up with the most compelling and musically challenging time-signatures and it can create tension in a song like no other musical trick before it. Just check Unearth’s Oncoming Storm for what I feel are some of the best examples of this.
Yet, I feel the end is nigh. Why? You might ask. Well, it dawned on me last Thursday, when I went to see Atreyu and a bunch of support acts in a club somewhere in town. Usually, when a band like Atreyu comes to Europe, they are supported by local acts because they are simply not big enough over here yet to haul a support around the globe. This time was different, however, and they had built the show into some kind of mini-festival that also incorporated, amongst others: He Is Legend and Norma Jean. Two bands I did not know, but a friend of mine that is into this stuff way too much told me they were absolutely fantastic. They were not. They were bands trying very much to fit in all the genre-specific tricks and licks, and all of them looked exactly like the guys in Atreyu.
The worst thing was that they sounded so much like the headliner that I was kind of fed up with all of it two songs into Atreyu’s set. Now, I realize that sometimes support acts aren’t the greatest thing in the world, but I remember seeing some of the best bands ever just before the one I had actually paid to see. Mudvayne once made it impossible for Metallica to even try to top their performance. I once left halfway through a Slayer show because I just didn’t care anymore after having seen System Of A Down open up for them. I don’t even want to talk about Fear Factory having to go on stage after Slipknot just played their first show in Europe. In my opinion, this was due to the fact that they were so very different from the 'Big Names’. They borrowed what they could use from their influences, and took it where it would go. Last Thursday, I felt like I was at a hip-hop show. Everybody looked and sounded the same. That is just not cool.
So I’m wondering whether it’s just me, or is this already a genre that has seen it’s peak and will fade from now? The fact that I felt that these newer, younger bands had clearly adjusted their music and style to be more like the more successful ones in the scene, is to me a sign of a genre losing it’s momentum. It is very reminiscent of the last days of Nu-metal. Usually it takes a band or album that does something completely different to wipe out a style of music and give music a much-needed overhaul, but I couldn’t name anything in this case if you held a gun to my head. Many people have predicted the end of metal many times before; can it be that we’ve really reached the end of our rope this time?
Please know that this is an article that states my very personal opinion and that I in no way expect anyone to agree with me. Feel free to comment on anything you disagree with.
-Maxx
666 this bitch!
1]| 
..And yeah Sum 41s new album is the shit..Go check out the song The Bitter End..the crasiest solo I've ever heard in the last few years..If your a true metal head and you say it sucks ..Then you are one messed up person and just bash them because theyre mainstream..Hell that song's much better than any of the new Metallica
grunge...alternative...poppunk...nu metal.. emo whats next?