Sorry if a similar topic exists, I couldn't find any. Also, I am not opening this as a recommendation topic, but feel free to recommend any bands/albums.
I remember, back in late 2000s/early 2010s some bands like Enforcer and Cauldron started gaining some recognition among heavy metal fans. As I was exploring other genres (proto-metal, hard rock, folk and many others) for most of the past decade, I was mostly listening to traditional metal bands I knew from before (anything from Black Sabbath to NWOBHM to late 80s Soviet bands).
During that time, I became aware of the fact that "traditional" heavy metal bands became numerous enough to form a sort of the wave (hence the name NWOTHM). As I was reading more about it, many sites and articles were talking about how those bands were sort of reviving the old NWOBHM sound.
However, once listening to some of those bands, most of them sound to be more influenced by the mid-1980s Speed/Heavy Metal (or faster tracks by older bands such as Accept or Judan Priest), a genre I usually wouldn't label "traditional", but, well, that is just my opinion and is not very relevant here.
To further illustrate my point, in another topic (
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=126796), I found those two quotes that represent what I am trying to tell quite well.
On_Stranger_Tides wrote:
It's useful in the sense that it pretty much clues me in on what the music is going to sounds like, which, as has been previously mentioned, is basically a narrow view of heavy/power metal as it sounded in the mid 80s. This has been true for nearly everything I've heard with the tag.
While I've found some enjoyment from groups like Eternal Champion and Borrowed Time, I don't find myself seeking them out over Manilla Road, Brocas Helm, etc.
Mellifleur wrote:
One distinction you could draw is that NWOBHM means bands from the 70's/80's who were influenced by earlier rock, metal, and other things, whereas NWOTHM means bands influenced by those bands. For that reason NWOTHM tends to be a bit narrower in sound even though with the internet and all it's easier than ever to hear and be influenced by infinite things. A lot of bands from back in the day had odd little dabblings in various other things swirling around the audiosphere, so you had metal bands doing ballads, having little jazzy and funk influenced bits strewn in here and there, whereas modern bands tend to zero in completely on the elements of those bands' sounds we specifically associate with metal. Sort of a deliberate refinement of the most "metal" aspects of traditional metal frankensteined into what should theoretically be perfect heavy metal to mixed results imo. Fuckin' Chevalier though... baller.
Or this, from another topic:
tomcat_ha wrote:
well most of the bands you mentioned are actually part of the retro doom/rock trend.
As for new old school heavy metal bands.
Well there are not many bands that play rocky heavy metal like old saxon but there i do see more bands who take from early heavy/power. Not enough to be really called a wave i think though.
Likewise, in mid-2000s (and later), there was sort of a revival of earlier (70s) metal and hard rock sound (some of bands are acceptable by the MA standards, while some other featured more of a hard rock sound). Same as for new wave of glam metal, which, like "NWOTHM", focused on mid-80s sound, although more on a hard rock side.
Between those two revivalist movements, period from, let's say, 1978 until 1982/3 seems to be sort of overlooked, apart from bands imitating (as mentioned before) faster tracks by the likes of Priest, or bands imitating Maiden (even those tend to sound more like post-Di'Anno-era Maiden).
Am I missing some obvious bands? Is there any aprticular reason why this period/style is not popular with revivalist bands?
Some of the examples of sound I have in mind:
- early 80s Saxon
- very early Accept
- 1978-1984 era Judas Priest (excluding their fastest tracks)
- late 70s/first half of 80s Scorpions
- early 80s NWOBHM like Fist, Tygers Of Pan Tang, Black Axe, etc.
- even earlier East European HR/HM bands like Vatreni Poljubac or Divlje Jagode